Life Healthcare eyes cost-effective AI to cut nurse burnout, admin load

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“Every business model within the context of Life Healthcare itself, we've taken a stance that we have to be progressive, as we're running several in-hospital and in-institution, shall we say, pilots, to be able to navigate how, when and where the use of AI is appropriate,” said Wharton-Hood.

As noted in the Future Health Index 2024 report, South African healthcare leaders are leading globally in adopting AI for clinical decision support and remote patient care, covering areas such as mental health, post-surgery monitoring, and chronic disease management.

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The question of cost

Still, Wharton-Hood adds that the implementation of AI is being carefully considered at Life Healthcare.

“The supplementation and decision-making methodology is being carefully evaluated in the context of whether it helps improve decision-making,” he said.

“I think AI has a role to play, be it around the boardroom table in a ward round, or in the assessment of the patient from a clinical, pharmaceutical or pharmacy perspective.”

Wharton-Hood adds that AI will assist the hospital group’s nurses in the future; however, the group wants to ensure that it remains cost-effective.

“A recent experiment that we did at the bedside in one of our large hospitals in Pretoria showed that it was improved from a convenience perspective, but it was unaffordable in the extra burden of cost placed on the healthcare framework itself,” said the CEO.

“As technology evolves, there are more cost-effective ways of being able to access the technology itself, and we'll start these developments together with the nursing team, put these pilots in appropriately, but make sure that the benefit that's derived doesn't exceed the cost.”

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Alleviating burnout

A University of the Witwatersrand study — which was conducted on 141 ICU nurses at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto — found that 51.1% exhibited burnout, characterised by high exhaustion and low personal accomplishment.

In the US, the UCLA Health Nursing used a focus group to explore how AI tools streamline workflows, reduce cognitive and administrative burdens, enhance documentation and improve patient-centred care.

One of the nurses participating in the focus group indicated that AI tools can play a crucial role in reducing clinician burnout.

However, Donna Wellbaum, the chief nursing informatics officer at UCLA Health, said that while AI is being used to augment nurses’ work and decrease their administrative burden, it could never replace them.

“It’s never here to take away that human element or the critical thinking that’s so vital to being a nurse,” she said.