London based digital healthcare provider uses AI to tackle NHS ‘staffing crisis’

As part of Bdaily’s latest feature, Innovation Week, we hear how a London headquartered digital healthcare provider is using AI to combat high levels of employee turnover in the sector.

Due to a lack of investment in the sector, record numbers are leaving for roles elsewhere. 68 per cent of NHS trusts reported a significant or severe impact from staff leaving for other sectors, with an estimated 40,000 staff leaving health and social care annually.

To combat this, Cera has developed artificial intelligence to predict which staff are at risk of leaving. This has been shown to detect staff who are at risk of handing in their notice three times more accurately than current measures.

This technology looks at shift pattern changes for employees; each carer’s utilisation rates; if visits are attended on time; relationships with managers; issues with pay or discrepancies in hours logged; and the availability and uptake of learning and development opportunities in specific branches, to determine the risk of someone leaving the sector.

Cera’s new technology aims to prevent 15 per cent of potential leavers from moving elsewhere at scale; this could reduce the number of leavers across the system by 50,000 staff a year. This is done by allowing operational management to intervene earlier and change working practices where needed.

This comes off the back of a report from Resolution Foundation demonstrating that consistently, care workers described their job as rewarding, with strong feelings of satisfaction in making a positive difference to people’s lives, with this new AI technology aiming to identify when such factors may be absent, so they can be addressed.

By reducing employee turnover, this technology will permit “greater continuity of care”. Evidence suggests that better continuity of care results in lower hospitalisation rates, keeping vulnerable people safely at home and reducing pressure on the NHS, which is “vital” at a time when 54,000 patients are waiting for over 12 hours in A&E.

It also reduces costs as training needs decrease, and allows Cera to grow hours in each branch and deliver excellent care to more people. Cera is initially launching this technology in select locations around the UK, including London, Essex, East and North East of England, and Scotland, from February 2023.

Dr Ben Maruthappu MBE, CEO and co-founder of Cera, commented: “Our team has worked hard to develop this new technology, which is set to help solve a key issue in the healthcare sector and tackle the high levels of turnover across the industry.

“Retaining those currently in the sector is often overlooked, as priorities remain to attract new staff. Using artificial intelligence and machine learning to help predict staff turnover will allow healthcare teams to spend more time doing what they do best, care, resulting in a better experience for patients.”

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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