A recent survey revealed that more than half of home-based care companies have either already invested in artificial intelligence (AI) or plan to do so within the next year. The primary motivation behind this trend is the ongoing staffing shortages in the sector.

In August and September 2024, Home Health Care News and Forcura conducted a survey to identify the top trends in AI within home-based care.

The survey revealed that staffing shortages and employee retention continue to be significant challenges in the home-based care space.

Since the pandemic, there has been an increase in the referral of patients with more complex illnesses for home-based care services. As a result, 48% of respondents indicated that these patients have a considerable impact on their businesses, primarily due to the lack of clinical support stemming from staffing issues.

“The pandemic fundamentally altered perceptions of safety and health care,” Tamara Broyles, senior vice president of operations at AngMar Medical Holdings Inc., said during a webinar conducted by Forcura. “Typically, patients who would have gone straight to a skilled nursing facility are now being kept at home because their families, and in many cases their physicians and practitioners, perceive, or may have experienced, risks in those facilities. As a result, we had to recognize that our patients are coming to us sicker and in worse shape than they were before.”

Based in Mansfield, Texas, AngMar Medical Holdings is a privately held family company managing a network of home-based care agencies across nine states.

When asked where they could deploy AI within their organizations, 43% of respondents said they would focus on clinical support at the point of care.

“Even though organizations are starting to recover labor costs, the expenses related to clinical team members and the care provided continues to rise,” Annie Erstling, chief operating officer at Forcura, said during the webinar. “The cost of retaining staff is increasing as well. It makes sense that AI could have the biggest impact here, and it’s where we would want to invest if we had a magic wand.”

Forcura is a document management and HIPAA-compliant communication company based in Jacksonville, Florida.

The move toward AI in home-based care has reached a tipping point, with 58% of respondents indicating they have already invested in AI or plan to do so in the next year. Conversely, 31% are adopting a “wait-and-see” approach before making an investment. The primary reasons for this hesitation include overwhelming costs, staff training needs, and concerns regarding accuracy and data integrity.

For providers already using AI or planning to implement it, the main challenges they aim to address include optimizing workflow and operational efficiency while reducing staff burdens. This reflects the industry’s ongoing staffing challenges, as these solutions are designed to enhance the experience for their best staff members.

“It makes sense for organizations of all sizes,” Erstling said. “Larger organizations face different challenges, requiring more complexity and uniformity across multiple care settings and sites. Smaller organizations often have one person managing many tasks. By automating processes that do not require human decision-making, smaller organizations can significantly impact their operations. This allows them to grow, thrive and ultimately focus more on patient care rather than documentation and administrative paperwork.”

Investing in new technology can be difficult due to financial constraints, especially for smaller organizations, but it can also help refocus financial priorities.

“People are our largest expense,” Broyles noted. “Their expertise comes at a cost. Anytime we can leverage AI or technology to reduce the number of human resources needed for certain tasks, we can save money. However, we can only streamline operations to an extent, because we are fundamentally a people-driven business. Eventually, we need staff to provide care.”