Omaha, Neb.-based Sequel Ortho is treating AI less as a technology project and more as an access and capacity strategy, according to John Bring, the organization’s vice president of clinical innovation and performance.
Mr. Bring recently spoke with Becker’s to share how the organization is using AI to remove friction across the patient journey, what happens when orthopedic systems don’t talk to each other, and where AI has delivered a clear early win.
Access as the strategy
Sequel Ortho has deployed AI-enabled access center technology to support scheduling, referral intake, call routing, insurance verification and patient communication, letting patients reach the practice by voice, chat or text while staying integrated with clinical systems.
“Our goal is simple: improve access to connect patients to the right care, at the right time, faster and with less friction,” Mr. Bring told Becker’s.
The organization tracks a broad set of operational metrics tied to access, conversion, capacity and quality, including call abandonment rate, average speed to answer, first-call resolution, scheduling conversion rates, days-to-appointment, referral leakage, patient satisfaction and access scores, OR utilization and surgeon throughput, and FTE avoidance and administrative productivity.
“We don’t believe AI wins are measured by how many models you deploy,” Mr. Bring said. “Success is measured by improved access, better care quality and more team capacity focused directly on patients.”
Where systems break down
Common disconnects in orthopedic practices often show up between the EMR, the patient access ecosystem, revenue cycle workflows and payer requirements, Mr. Bring said. Data for these functions typically live in siloed systems, creating logjams.
When those systems don’t communicate with each other, patients repeat information, referrals become difficult to track, authorizations slow down and denials become harder to prevent, Mr. Bring said.
“AI doesn’t fix broken workflows, it exposes and amplifies them,” Mr. Bring said. That’s why Sequel Ortho starts with people, process and data before layering on technology. Left unaddressed, he said, disconnected systems delay access, authorization, payment accuracy and care coordination.
What AI success can look like
One of the best examples of AI implementation gone right at Sequel Ortho has been in physician documentation, an area where providers have historically spent too much time after visits, often at the expense of time with patients or other clinical work.
AI scribes and ambient listening tools are shifting that work back into the clinical encounter, capturing the conversation and drafting documentation for physicians to review and finalize, Mr. Bring said. Beyond documentation, AI is also supporting coding and charge capture, denials management, payment accuracy workflows, analytics and executive reporting, and knowledge retrieval for staff and leaders.
“The result is that physicians and teams can spend less time on repetitive administrative work and more time on the moments that require clinical judgment, patient connection and problem-solving,” Mr. Bring said.
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