Voice User Interface Connecting Clinician with Supply Inventory Management via Alexa
The Opportunity
Clinician time is extremely valuable in the fast-paced, high-acuity setting of Barnes-Jewish Hospital (BJH) and other BJC facilities. Non-productive tasks, such as gathering supplies, consume time, which would be better spent with the patient or planning patient care with the clinical team. The goal of this project was to test the feasibility of streamlining the supply retrieval process through the use of a virtual assistant and its associated business developer application.
Our Approach
This team configured a voice assistant to allow for voice ordering of inpatient clinical supplies by clinicians. A pilot of this program was tested in the supply rooms of two inpatient wards. The team created a Supply Inventory Table with synonyms for the two pilot areas and gathered over 1,000 natural dialogues of synonyms for supplies from nurses, patient care techs, physicians, and respiratory therapists. The voice assistant was programmed to inform a clinician of the nearest location or call the supply chain, if a bin is empty.
The Solution
Additional outcomes are not complete for this project, so please check back at a later date for more information.
