When it comes to AI in healthcare, most eyes are on the impact in the clinical and diagnostic arenas, but healthcare organizations are moving quickly to take advantage of AI to enhance operational efficiency, too.

For example, according to our colleague Nathan Eddy at HealthcareITNews, the Central Florida Division of multi-state AdventHealth has launched a new high-tech command center that aims to help enhance the efficient delivery of patient care across the division’s nine Central Florida hospitals.

Powered with GE Healthcare technology, the command center will use an array of algorithms to guide decision-making in the areas of patient transfers between units and facilities, dispatch of ambulances and helicopters, and prioritization of placement and treatment across AdventHealth medical campuses in Orange, Seminole, and Osceola counties.

In a statement, Daryl Tol, president and CEO of AdventHealth's Central Florida division, explained, "While the command center is invisible to patients, our team of experts will be there around the clock to make sure patients receive the care they need, quickly and safely.”

The 12,000-square-foot center “is staffed 24 hours a day and features 60 monitors that continually display information such as near-time information such as patient bed status, as well as helicopter and ambulance status and movements.”

According to Eddy, intended as “hubs to monitor performance and learn and launch improvement programs,” the centers tap technology including electronic health records, scheduling, and bed management, business intelligence tools, and real-time decision-support AI tools.

GE Healthcare has used this approach since 2016, when it opened the Judy Reitz Capacity Command Center at Johns Hopkins, while more recently it worked with Florida Hospital to develop a command center to help transform clinical operations at Florida Hospital locations across Central Florida, using predictive analytics to help hospital staff.

Naturally, the design of these centers varies, depending individual institutional needs, but Eddy notes “the GE-based centers are defined by a video wall of LCD screens – the company calls the feature its Wall of Analytics – designed to help create transparency and drive improved coordination of care across the enterprise.”