Privia Health, located in Arlington, Virginia, operates across 15 states and the District of Columbia. The organization focuses on creating extensive provider networks that include primary-care-centric medical groups and risk-bearing entities, all governed by a physician-led structure.

Challenges Faced

Privia Health encountered several significant challenges that affected both its providers and overall operational efficiency. The rapidly changing healthcare landscape has made traditional methods increasingly inadequate.

Chris Voigt, the executive vice president and chief technology officer at Privia Health, highlighted the following issues:

• Provider Burnout: Voigt noted that efforts to optimize workflows sometimes added to provider burnout, as they were left to handle administrative tasks instead of focusing on patient care.
• Automation Frustration: Providers expressed a common sentiment of “Can’t the computer just do that?” regarding tasks that seemed suitable for automation.
• Data Silos: The challenge of accessing relevant patient data, especially from outside standard EHRs, made it difficult for doctors to interact meaningfully with patients.
• Back-Office Efficiency: Despite attempts to enhance automation, there was a need for more advanced technologies to streamline processes.

Proposed Solutions

Voigt emphasized that artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies could address these challenges within the current EHR workflows and improve overall productivity. However, identifying the right technology can be complex.

He pointed out that many vendors have labeled their products as AI, making it difficult to discern genuine innovations from traditional technologies. Recently, the landscape has become clearer, allowing for a better understanding of AI’s impact on provider experiences and productivity.

Implementation of AI Tools

Privia Health has integrated various AI tools into its primary EHR platform, provided by athenahealth. The benefits observed include:

• Improved document classification and medication deduplication.
• Enhanced patient experience tools that reduce documentation time.
• Successful implementation of the Navina workflow system, which interprets complex data to provide a comprehensive view of patient health.

These tools have significantly improved patient documentation and care by ensuring that important historical data is not overlooked.

Results Achieved

The Navina AI platform has proven particularly effective, achieving an 84% addressed rate for coding suggestions during patient encounters. Additionally:

• Nearly 90% of active providers have adopted the tool, reducing chart preparation time by up to 2.5 hours daily.
• Front- and back-office optimizations have ranged from 10-30%, with a 7% reduction in insurance-related denials.

These improvements have allowed physicians to concentrate more on patient care while minimizing administrative burdens.

Advice for Other Organizations

Voigt recommends that organizations seeking to implement AI should:

1. Engage providers early in the evaluation process to gather input.
2. Develop early adopters into champions for AI integration.
3. Establish a workgroup to manage AI policies and vendor evaluations.

He cautions that if a technology appears too good to be true, it may require closer scrutiny to ensure data privacy and integrity.

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