MUSC Health works to reduce friction for patients and providers

Salt Lake City - Whether patients want to use digital tools for scheduling or talk to a person, the Medical University of South Carolina health system is aiming to meet people where they are and help patients get their care with fewer hassles.

And MUSC Health is also aiming to make life easier for its caregivers as well.

Crystal Broj, chief digital transformation officer of MUSC Health, says she has focused on “removing friction from the patient journey.”

Broj talked about the health system’s efforts to improve access and help staff in a conversation with Chief Healthcare Executive® at the Healthcare Marketing & Physician Strategies Summit.

MUSC Health has been rolling out automated tools ahead of patient appointments giving patients the option to confirm, reschedule, and complete registration ahead of the appointment. The system is also reminding patients of upcoming screenings, including upcoming mammograms.

Since rolling the pre-registration across MUSC Health, about 50% of patients contacted via text are filling out their information before the appointment.

MUSC is also using a voice bot powered by agentic AI, named Emily, that can help patients with appointments, or transfer patients to staff members.

“That only helps our patients, but it also helps our care team members,” Broj says. “Because she now handles 25% of all the calls. So that means that our care team members can do more, the abandonment rate is less, they're answering calls faster.”

Broj says it’s important to offer patients different options, including talking to human beings if that’s their preference.

“That's what I mean about meeting the patient where you are, because we will always have patients that are digital and patients who just want to talk to a live person,” she says. “We'll have patients that are very happy to pay their bills via phone or something like that. But also there'll be patients who still want to write a check, still want to fill out the clipboard, and you know what, that's why we want to meet patients where they are. Everybody has a different style, and we want to be multimodal and fit the style that they actually want.”

MUSC Health has also designed its website to help patients book appointments with simple terms. Patients can search for doctors who treat “knee pain” rather than having to specifically look for an orthopedist.

The system has also worked to provide a consistent experience for patients across MUSC Health, and that’s been a key part of the “OneMUSC” strategic plan.

“We're really big on OneMUSC to make sure that the patient journey is the same,” Broj says. “Because we're not just in Charleston, we're across the state, because we have many different types. We're a big academic medical center, we have lots of subspecialties, but if you go to your hypertension doctor and then you go to a diabetes doctor, it should still feel the same if you're working with us.”

MUSC Health has been aiming to expand its services, and the system is building a new cancer hospital in Charleston. The hospital plans call for 100 inpatient rooms and the project is slated to be completed by 2030.

Even as MUSC Health expands, Broj says it’s important to maintain easy access across the system. “I think growth only works if you can scale it right,” she says.

And she says digital scheduling models are an important element of the system’s strategy.

“We find more and more patients really don't want to have to call if they don't need to,” Broj says. “And integrating that navigation as we expand, we're creating a more connected system across the entire state.”

Like more and more health systems, MUSC Health has incorporated ambient documentation tools that record and summarize physicians’ conversations with patients, which helps reduce the amount of time doctors are spending on updating patient records.

Patients are also giving AI documentation high marks, Broj says, because doctors aren’t typing away at a keyboard and are able to look directly at patients.

“The patients love it,” Broj says.