Hospitals Turn to AI to Fix Human Error

Hospitals around the country continue to grapple with an ongoing problem with patient falls. Each year, hundreds of thousands of inpatients suffer unnecessarily due to falls, and despite changes in practices and policies and procedures, nurses continue to arrive too late to prevent these injuries.

Determining which patients are most likely to fall is one potential way to mitigate risk. Despite years of working with patients, nurses on the floor still struggle to determine who is most likely to suffer an accident. So now some hospitals in Silicon Valley and around the country are turning to computers to answer this question.

By inputting data on patients who have fallen in the past, administrators and researchers hope that Artificial Intelligence algorithms will identify risk factors that were previously missed. Once these risk factors are identified, nurses can better predict who is at greatest risk of falling. And if nurses continue to fail, these algorithms can be adjusted to function in real time, predicting potential falls and notifying personnel.

Unfortunately a computer alone is not enough to prevent these incidents. Though the AI may predict risks accurately, it is still the responsibility of healthcare providers to be on scene and prevent the fall from occurring. And years and years of history have shown that all too often, providers are absent even when a patient has been identified as at risk.

If someone you love has suffered due to a fall, it is important you consult with an experienced attorney about your case. Determining whether proper protocols were developed and followed is important to understanding why and how the fall occurred. Please, consider consulting with a qualified lawyer.