A candid look at how the RhythmX AI Precision Care Platform powers personalized care, optimizes referrals and unlocks measurable financial impact, while streamlining clinician workload.
During a recent Becker’s webinar, The Future is Live: How Trailblazing Health Systems Are Revolutionizing Primary Care with Agentic AI, Darren Shafer, DO, President of Presbyterian Medical Group and Keith Fisher, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Adventist Healthcare Fort Washington Medical Center spoke candidly about how agentic AI is reshaping care delivery.
Moderated by Deepthi Bathina, Founder & CEO of RhythmX AI, the discussion highlighted how clinically validated AI assistants embedded directly into the EHR are no longer hypothetical – they are live in clinical workflows today. Bathina framed the discussion around a simple but provocative question: “What does AI actually mean for patient care, the clinician experience and health system financial performance?”
Synthesizing decades of patient data in minutes
Dr. Shafer underscored the daily reality for Presbyterian’s 200+ primary care clinicians: too much data and not enough time. “Having AI synthesize decades of clinical and financial data before the visit, surfacing both known and suspected conditions, allows our physicians to focus on the highest priorities instead of hunting through charts,” Shafer said.
Dr. Fisher echoed this point, calling today’s data deluge both a blessing and a burden. “The expectation on clinicians is essentially superhuman. AI closes that gap, giving us the ability to coalesce complex data in real time and deliver the kind of care patients expect.”
The financial drivers: quality, coding and care orchestration
While both leaders emphasized reduced cognitive burden and clinician satisfaction, they were quick to connect the technology’s impact to financial performance.
Shafer noted that it costs nearly a million dollars to replace a physician after factoring in lost appointment access, patient panel disruption and ramp-up time for new clinicians. Tools that reduce burnout and improve workflow directly protect a health system’s bottom line.
Beyond retention, both executives described how the right AI solution can drive revenue and cost savings by:
Closing quality gaps and boosting performance measures tied to reimbursement
Optimizing coding and documentation by ensuring accurate RAF and HCC capture at the point of care
Suspecting potential undiagnosed conditions using longitudinal data, bringing in new risk-adjusted revenue
Improving specialist referrals and care orchestration, reducing network leakage and unnecessary consults
“The genie is not going back in the bottle. AI will be the de facto standard,” said Dr. Fisher. “The question isn’t if, but when, and those who move first will capture the financial advantage.”
Extending Specialist Agentic AI into every exam room
Both leaders discussed how agentic AI extends the reach of scarce specialists. Shafer described it as having “a pocket full of specialists” at the fingertips of every PCP or advanced practice clinician.
With AI surfacing evidence-based recommendations across multiple specialties, care teams can manage complex cases with more confidence. This, Shafer stressed, not only improves patient outcomes but also creates measurable system-wide value.
Fisher added that patients judge their care experience by whether their questions are answered in real time. “With AI agents that integrate and analyze an array of patient data sources, clinicians get a more complete view of the patient and can address very personalized concerns at the point of care – avoiding delays, avoiding leakage and building trust.”
Transparency and trust drive adoption: Deep clinical validation matters
Both executives emphasized that widespread adoption will require transparency and explainability. “For physicians to trust the recommendations, they need to know where the data is coming from and why a specific suggestion is being made,” Fisher said. “Transparency accelerates adoption.”
Shafer shared that even initial skeptics within his system have become champions after seeing RhythmX AI’s impact on workflow and patient interactions. “When physicians realize they’re no longer spending two hours at night researching complex cases but instead closing the loop in real time, that’s a game changer.”
Why waiting is the bigger risk
For health system leaders weighing whether to wait for EHR vendors to catch up, Shafer offered a clear message: “We’re still waiting on promised [EHR] features that are overdue. AI isn’t something to delay. The earlier you adopt, the faster you create the model of care others will follow.”
A new ROI model for AI in healthcare
The conversation concluded with a reframing of AI as not only a clinical innovation but a financial one. For systems facing physician shortages, razor-thin margins and competitive markets the ROI extends across access, quality, revenue and retention.
“Improving quality and patient outcomes leads to improved financials,” Shafer said. “Agentic AI is one of the few levers that can move all of those metrics at once. I can’t imagine a way (without RhythmX AI) that we’d be able to bring all this information together, have a hyper-personalized look at what the patient needs based on the entirety of their medical history, and all the medical evidence flowing through in the background to support the recommendations. That’s just a recipe for success.”
The post Waiting on EHRs Can Be Costly: Presbyterian Healthcare Services and Adventist Healthcare Share How AI Precision Care Platforms Can Deliver ROI appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.
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