In the United States, one in 31 children is diagnosed with autism. Thanks to a collaboration between Acclaim Autism and Appian, it is now possible to reduce the waiting time between diagnosis and treatment by 83 percent. What used to take up to six months can now be done in a month. The organization has used artificial intelligence to break through bureaucracy and administrative processes.
Early intervention is crucial for children with autism. The earlier treatment begins, the more effective it can be for developing social communication, language skills, and adaptive behavior. However, parents often got caught up in bureaucracy and administrative processes, wasting valuable time.
Acclaim Autism provides therapeutic care to autistic children in the United States. Early treatment is crucial to making real progress in developing the skills they need to succeed. The organization offers one-on-one behavioral therapy to children and families affected by autism.
Complex processes as an obstacle
The intake processes for autism treatment used to be incredibly complex. At Acclaim Autism, they have to comply with the requirements of national and local regulators, federal healthcare regulations, various insurance companies, and specific rules within the field. This complexity led to huge delays.
“When we started, our processes were overwhelmingly complex. Families came to us to get started and were given a stack of forms, insurance authorizations, and medical record requests. The list went on and on. It didn’t take days to complete the intake process, but weeks or sometimes even months,” says Acclaim Autism President Jamie Turner.
What’s more, the technological processes were poorly designed. Manual data entry, jumping back and forth between spreadsheets, and having multiple spreadsheets open simultaneously were all standard practice. Errors were also common. This is unacceptable in healthcare—there is no room for error when you need to act quickly.
AI as a breakthrough
The change process began with mapping out the complex workflows and identifying the bottlenecks. Acclaim Autism chose Appian, a process automation and AI integration platform, to streamline their processes.
One of the first innovations was developing an AI system to process clinical autism documents. The system had to be HIPAA-compliant, as this health regulation is decisive in the United States. The technology used automatically extracts relevant diagnostic information from unstructured documents from neurologists, pediatricians, and other healthcare providers. It converts it into a clear format that the care team can use immediately.
The accuracy rate is said to be around 99 percent. Acclaim Autism identified two errors with dates, which were quickly resolved with a code adjustment. This technology eliminates the manual processing of complex medical documents, which was previously time-consuming and error-prone.
In addition to document processing, Acclaim Autism has also implemented Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to extract data from electronic health records and enter it directly into the required systems. This has drastically reduced the error rate, which previously could be as high as 20 percent.
More than administrative efficiency
The impact of these changes goes far beyond simply speeding up administrative processes. For children with autism, it means they can start crucial behavioral therapies five months earlier, which can make a significant difference in their development.
The ultimate goal is not just efficiency or automation, but a better quality of life for the children they treat. “The real results we care about are things like a child saying their first word, joining in dinner with their siblings, laughing at a joke, asking a question, or making a friend,” said Acclaim Autism during Appian World. “Human moments that many of us take for granted.”
According to the care provider, the new approach also affects staff. New technology offers a solution to burnout in a sector with high staff turnover. Employees are no longer drowning in paperwork. They can concentrate on their actual job: helping children.
Future plans
Acclaim Autism is working on further improvements, including an advanced matching system for creating optimal care teams. This system considers various factors such as distance, availability, schedules, and personal preferences of both families and therapists.
The care provider is also developing a case management system that centralises all communication between parents, care providers, and administrative staff. This prevents miscommunication and delays. In the long term, Acclaim Autism wants to develop clinical tools that can be used directly in the home environment based on the data collected.
The intention is that these solutions will eventually also be made available to other healthcare providers facing similar challenges. Many healthcare providers in the US are now going bankrupt because they cannot manage this part of their organization effectively.