Companies sign three-year deal to launch billing, financial services, employee engagement, and long-term COVID support solutions after successful 2021 roll-out
Following the success of Michigan Medicine’s chatbot during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ann Arbor-based academic medical center has agreed to a three-year contract to expand its relationship with Loyal, a digital health platform utilized at many of nation’s leading health systems and hospitals.
Michigan Medicine will soon expand its chatbot to answer consumer questions about locations and relevant providers, billing and payments, and long-term COVID support services. The health system will also be able to offer appointment location assistance and appointment details, address employee questions, and support deeper click-to-call functionality to connect chat users with broader, more accurate routing to call centers and offices.
Finally, the deal includes the development of conversational AI with unique, context-driven dialogs for consumers who visit the specialty-center hospital websites of the Frankel Cardiovascular Center, Rogel Cancer Center, and the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. This addition to Michigan Medicine’s existing AI technology will more efficiently recognize consumers’ intent, point them to answers and provide the information they need. Michigan Medicine’s chatbot will answer consumer questions about locations, relevant providers, billing, and COVID-19 long-term support. These updates reinforce recent research from Deloitte showing that health system leaders’ top desired outcome is achieving a better patient experience from digital transformation projects, and many health systems are looking for new ways to engage patients following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Consumers today have different expectations of healthcare providers; they want a digital experience that’s personalized and meets their immediate needs,” said Chad Mallory, CEO of Loyal. “We’re excited about expanding our relationship with Michigan Medicine. It’s an honor to work with health systems that not only understand the challenges of connecting the dots of the digital healthcare journey and are actively looking for solutions, but recognize the need for personalization throughout — not just for their consumers, but for their employees as well.”
“During the pandemic, Loyal went above and beyond as we dealt with a flood of questions about the COVID-19 vaccine. Not only did they help significantly lighten the load on our staff, but they proactively identified a need around mental health and quickly delivered a solution to the benefit of our community,” said Rose Glenn, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer at Michigan Medical. “Building on our successful track record, we look forward to rolling out additional capabilities over the next three years with Loyal to improve our employee and patient experiences – further advancing our world-class healthcare experience for the digital age.”
Affiliated with the University of Michigan, Michigan Medicine is one of the largest hospitals in the state of Michigan with over 2.6 million patient clinic visits and 94,700 emergency department visits annually. In 2021, Michigan Medicine was ranked No.11 for hospitals nationwide by U.S. News and World Report and employs more than 24,400 people.