Contact: Sara Quale
O - 970.810.6133
C - 970.310.3749
Media on-call - 602.492.4770
Sara.Quale@bannerhealth.com
GREELEY, Colo. (June 12, 2019) – The latest innovation by Banner Health aims to help answer an oft-asked question from patients who visit the emergency room: "How long is this going to take"?
Banner’s conversational chatbot was launched to improve the patient experience in Banner Health emergency rooms. Patients interact with the bot on their mobile phones to get information and answers related to their visit, in real time.
When asked a question, the bot pulls data from the health system’s medical record to get answers. The chatbot service is offered to patients when they register at the emergency room. Patients who opt in receive a text message on their cell phone to begin the process of interacting with the chatbot.
North Colorado Medical Center began offering patients the chatbot service June 12. Banner Gateway Medical Center in Arizona launched the program in May. After the first month, patients had an average of 9.4 conversations with the bot during their stay. The most frequently asked questions center around when lab or medical imaging results will be available.
The technology, powered by LifeLink technology, will roll out to other Banner Health hospitals later this year including Banner Fort Collins Medical Center, McKee Medical Center and the Banner Colorado Emergency department in west Greeley. LifeLink builds mobile conversational chatbots for health care including large hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and healthcare service providers.
“This is an example of Banner Health working to make health care easier so life can be better,” said Margo Karsten, CEO for Banner Health in Northern Colorado and president of Banner’s Western Region. “Not knowing when or sometimes if a physician will come back to your patient room is so frustrating. This tool will help patients find peace of mind.”
The chatbot program is one of several recent projects in development with Banner.
About Banner Health
Headquartered in Arizona, Banner Health is one of the largest nonprofit health care systems in the country. The system owns and operates 28 acute-care hospitals, Banner Health Network, Banner – University Medicine, academic and employed physician groups, long-term care centers, outpatient surgery centers and an array of other services; including Banner Urgent Care, family clinics, home care and hospice services, pharmacies and a nursing registry. Banner Health is in six states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming. For more information, visit www.BannerHealth.com.
About LifeLink
LifeLink builds mobile conversational chatbots for health care. Large hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and healthcare service providers use LifeLink bots to engage patient populations at scale, across a spectrum of workflows and scenarios. For more information, visit www.lifelink.com.