What is Urgency AI?
When a request is submitted by a patient, Urgency AI automatically flags the request as either:
- Emergency: Red flag. Patient could be harmed if request is not resolved on the same day. May require emergency services. Goes to top of inbox.
- Urgent: Orange flag. Patient could be harmed if request is not resolved within the next 48 hours. Goes to top of inbox below red flag emergencies.
- Routine: Grey flag. Patient unlikely to be harmed if request is not resolved within the next 48 hours. Goes to bottom of inbox.
It will also pre-populate the 'How clinically urgent is this request?' triage decision for you in the patient request. You can read more about triage decisions in Patchs here.
Urgency AI's suggestions are meant to assist, not replace clinical judgment. You should therefore still triage and reply to all Patchs requests ASAP.
What are the benefits of Urgency AI?
Without Urgency AI, initial triage decisions are usually made by receptionists. Advantages of Patchs doing this instead are that it may:
- Improve patient safety by speeding up triage decisions, helping urgent requests get reviewed quicker.
- Reduce workload by suggesting triage decisions instead of deciding them yourself.
- Improve triage accuracy because it's learned how to triage from thousands of GPs using Patchs across the UK.
- Reduce clinical risk placed on receptionists by supporting them to triage patients.
How accurate is Urgency AI?
GP practices and patients tell us the most important thing for Urgency AI is its ability to detect urgent and emergency patient requests so it's as safe as possible. The best way to do this is to measure the percentage of urgent and emergency requests it gets right, which is called sensitivity.
By design, Urgency AI is made to be highly sensitive. The current version of Urgency AI correctly detects 97% of urgent and emergency patient requests (sensitivity). Research suggests that human doctors correctly detect 79% of urgent and emergency diagnoses.
Further detail on the performance of all AIs is given in the Clinical Safety Case Report.
What should I do if I disagree with Urgency AI?
If you disagree with the urgency suggested by Urgency AI - or you think it's missed an urgent or emergency request - you should change the urgency yourself when making your triage decision. This helps monitor how accurate it is, and because Patchs is always learning, helps correct its mistakes in future.