ThinkAndor, an AI-first platform, transforms emergency care at the Medical University of South Carolina

ORLANDO, Fla., May 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Andor Health, an AI-first company reimagining virtual care, announces a groundbreaking initiative aimed at transforming the patient experience in MUSC Health emergency departments. The program uses artificial intelligence (AI)-powered ThinkAndor® to reduce wait times and enhance the quality of care for patients.

The demand for emergency care continues to rise, leading to overcrowding and excessive wait times. By leveraging ThinkAndor Virtual Rounding, ambient documentation and virtual triage capabilities, emergency departments can identify and address patients’ needs more efficiently, ultimately improving experiences and outcomes. ThinkAndor’s novel approach to emergency department (ED) triage significantly reduces the proportion of patients with “leaving without being seen” (LWBS) dispositions by 17%.

Health systems can optimize emergency care delivery by integrating AI-powered ThinkAndor Virtual Rounding and virtual triage capabilities into traditional ED workflows. Upon arrival, patients are promptly placed in dedicated consultation rooms where they receive initial assessments and treatment from MUSC clinicians who are remotely based and perform assessments virtually. Providers monitor patients’ progress through ThinkAndor’s Virtual Command Center and update patients as they await further evaluation.

With significant reductions in wait times and LWBS rates, early results from MUSC’s program have been promising. For example, when fewer beds were available to move patients through MUSC’s ED, LWBS rates should have risen. However, after implementing ThinkAndor Virtual Rounding and virtual triage capabilities, MUSC’s LWBS rates remained flat because patients were triaged upon arrival, accelerating time to care and disposition. Additionally, due to a remarkable increase in the number of patients receiving medical screening examinations with ThinkAndor AI-first capabilities, MUSC experienced an improvement in productivity by approximately 500% (see Figure 1) when compared with traditional in-person triage.

“Through our strategic partnership with Andor Health, we are transforming emergency care. With ThinkAndor supporting the Emergency Department, we have experienced better outcomes, improved ED throughput and increased patient satisfaction. Even during peak demand when the hospital is at- or overcapacity, the virtual care we are delivering through ThinkAndor ensures optimal outcomes,” said Morsal Tahouni, M.D., assistant professor and medical director of Emergency Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina.

“By implementing ThinkAndor, we were able to maintain our LWBS rates under 4%, below the national average, even when capacity at each campus was greater than 100%,” explained Jeanhyong “Danny” Park, M.D., assistant professor and director of ED Clinical Informatics, Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina.

“Innovation is at the heart of everything we do, and our AI-first approach to transforming emergency care is a testament to that commitment,” said Raj Toleti, chairman and CEO of Andor Health. “We recognize the need to automate key workflows of collaboration, documentation and observation within care delivery with an AI-first approach, and ThinkAndor achieves that goal.”

Visit Andor Health at ATA Nexus 2024 booth 619 to learn why ThinkAndor is the leading AI-first virtual care collaboration platform.

About Andor Health
Andor Health revolutionizes clinical care through generative AI-powered virtual experiences across the continuum. ThinkAndor® empowers healthcare providers with actionable insights and ambient monitoring by harnessing generative AI to procure, process, and intelligently translate data and signals trapped in various systems, including electronic medical records and biometric devices. With proven ROI, ThinkAndor® puts AI into action by improving workflows, time to treatment, patient outcomes, and clinical productivity. For more information, visit Andor Health or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About MUSC
Founded in 1824 in Charleston, MUSC is the state’s only comprehensive academic health system, with a unique mission to preserve and optimize human life in South Carolina through education, research and patient care. Each year, MUSC educates more than 3,200 students in six colleges – Dental Medicine, Graduate Studies, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy – and trains more than 900 residents and fellows in its health system. MUSC brought in more than $300 million in research funds in fiscal year 2023, leading the state overall in research funding. MUSC also leads the state in federal and National Institutes of Health funding. For information on academic programs, visit musc.edu.

As the health care system of the Medical University of South Carolina, MUSC Health is dedicated to delivering the highest-quality and safest patient care while educating and training generations of outstanding health care providers and leaders to serve the people of South Carolina and beyond. Patient care is provided at 16 hospitals (includes owned or governing interest), with approximately 2,700 beds and four additional hospital locations in development; more than 350 telehealth sites and nearly 750 care locations situated in all regions of South Carolina. In 2023, for the ninth consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report named MUSC Health University Medical Center in Charleston the No. 1 hospital in South Carolina. To learn more about clinical patient services, visit muschealth.org.

MUSC has a total enterprise annual operating budget of $5.9 billion. The nearly 31,000 MUSC family members include world-class faculty, physicians, specialty providers, scientists, students, affiliates and care team members who deliver groundbreaking education, research, and patient care.