Intermountain Healthcare Partners with GYANT to Co-Develop on COVID-19 Screener and Emergency Response Solution

Virtual assistant offers COVID-19 information and triage support for Intermountain patients

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GYANT, the patient connection and relationship management company, today announced that Intermountain Healthcare is now deploying a jointly developed COVID-19 Screener and Emergency Response Assistant (COVID-19 SERA), created in collaboration with Intermountain infectious disease clinicians. The automated chat solution, available via Intermountain Healthcare’s homepage, offers screening and care navigation support for all Intermountain Healthcare patients, and answers questions related to symptoms and prevention.

With the COVID-19 SERA, Intermountain patients now have access to the most current information about the spread of COVID-19 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Intermountain infectious disease clinicians. The solution screens for COVID-19 symptoms and risk factors, and based on patients’ responses, directs them to the most appropriate medical settings. It is also equipped with tips and recommendations to help educate patients and prevent further spread of COVID-19. Intermountain is delivering all of this information via a highly customized version of GYANT’s COVID-19 SERA, branded as ‘Scout.’

“At Intermountain, we’re committed to keeping our patients informed and giving them access to the tools and support they need during this critical time,” said Kevan Mabbutt, Intermountain Healthcare’s chief consumer officer. “That’s why we worked with GYANT to develop ‘Scout,’ a friendly virtual assistant that provides on-demand screening and answers to our community’s COVID-19-related questions. ‘Scout’ is especially important with COVID-19 because it helps people get symptoms checked out quickly and easily while social distancing at home and prioritizes testing and telehealth resources for those who need them most.”

Since the deployment of COVID-19 SERA, Intermountain has seen more than 157,000 users in 2.5 weeks, with an average of about 9,300 per day. The tool has conducted COVID-19 screenings for Intermountain patients with a 93% screening completion rate. Intermountain has also seen a 30% decrease in call center volume, which helps alleviate strain on the call center and opens up lines of patient-clinician communications for those who need it most.

“Health systems and hospital resources are more strained than ever before,” said Stefan Behrens, CEO and co-founder, GYANT. “We launched our COVID-19 SERA with the intention of easing the burden on hospital resources. With ‘Scout,’ Intermountain can offer patients the information they need virtually, keeping healthy people home and directing non-emergent patients to telehealth, keeping patients in their homes when appropriate and limiting the risk of exposure for both patients and providers.”

Intermountain’s instance of the COVID-19 Screener and Emergency Response Assistant will continuously update based on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Intermountain infectious disease clinicians.

About GYANT
GYANT, the healthcare virtual assistant company, creates on-demand healthcare navigation software that improves care utilization while reducing administrative burden. GYANT software appears on a hospital system’s website or mobile app to chat with patients and guide them to the care and digital health tools they need, 24-7. GYANT’s virtual assistant is customizable to any organization’s branding, EHR, digital tools and clinical endpoints. GYANT ties together all of the digital tools a health system needs in a single interface, creating a seamless patient experience -- increasing engagement, trust and loyalty at each stage of the healthcare journey. GYANT’s unique combination of deep intelligence, physician oversight and a human-driven, empathetic approach allows health systems to solve for traditional complex care issues, ensuring that patients receive the right care, anytime and anywhere.

About Intermountain Healthcare
Intermountain Healthcare is a Utah-based, not-for-profit system of 24 hospitals (includes "virtual" hospital), a Medical Group with more than 2,600 physicians and advanced practice clinicians at about 215 clinics, a health plans division called SelectHealth, and other health services. Helping people live the healthiest lives possible, Intermountain is widely recognized as a leader in clinical quality improvement and efficient healthcare delivery.