Cera’s AI platform boosts care visits by a third, offering solutions for staff shortages and hospital bed shortages.
An innovative AI-driven scheduling system is being hailed as a potential solution to tackle NHS discharge delays and long waiting lists, according to the founder of Cera, a healthtech company piloting the technology. The platform, which matches care staff to patients based on their skills, languages, and health needs, has already shown promising results in reducing the time between hospital discharge and home care initiation.
Dr Ben Maruthappu, Cera’s founder, who started the company in 2016 after working as an A&E medic, highlighted the platform’s ability to speed up the manual process of matching carers with patients. Traditionally, this task can take hours or even days, but Cera’s AI scheduler ensures that patients can begin receiving care almost immediately.
The system has been tested in major UK cities such as London, Liverpool, and Birmingham, and is set for nationwide implementation by the end of 2024. Data from a pilot study in Lancashire, which involved over 6,000 care appointments, showed that the AI tool reduced staff travel distances by 57% and increased care visits by 33%.
Dr Maruthappu noted that the platform could also significantly aid in the discharge process, allowing patients to be transferred from hospital to home on the same day – a vast improvement from the days or weeks typically required. The current backlog of 13,000 medically fit patients occupying hospital beds in the UK underscores the urgency of finding a solution to this issue.
With NHS waiting lists reaching a record 7.6 million treatments by December 2024, Dr Maruthappu believes Cera’s technology could make a significant difference in creating more hospital capacity. The AI scheduler not only optimises carer scheduling but also improves the quality of care, as the platform ensures the best possible match for each patient, reducing wasted time and improving efficiency.
Despite concerns about the potential for AI to replace human care, Dr Maruthappu emphasised that the platform doesn’t reduce care time; it enhances it by providing staff with the right tools to do their jobs more efficiently. He added that AI has the potential to transform every aspect of social care, improving both the quality and delivery of services, and addressing some of the industry’s chronic staffing and administrative issues.
Cera’s AI innovations also include predictive tools that can anticipate when elderly patients are likely to fall, allowing carers to intervene before accidents occur. In addition, Cera Voice, an AI-driven service, calls patients daily to monitor their health and determine their risk of illness.
Dr Maruthappu concluded by saying that a comprehensive overhaul of social care would not be achieved by simply increasing recruitment or spending more money. Instead, he believes a major shift is needed in how technology is integrated into care operations to improve service quality and efficiency.
