Performance of an Intelligent Messaging Tool for Clinical Communications

What is the association between a natural language processing tool classifying high-acuity patient portal messages and clinician time to first read?In this quality improvement study of 3 030 247 messages from 1 042 418 unique patients, the Smart Messaging Tool achieved 81.0% classification accuracy compared with 44.0% for the legacy system and was associated with a statistically significant 17.01-hour reduction in the duration of time between when high-acuity messages were sent and when they were first read by a clinician.These findings suggest that accurate classification of patient portal messages using the natural language processing–powered Smart Messaging Tool may support patient safety.

Corresponding Author: Dinh Nguyen, MD, MS, Southern California Permanente Medical Group, 393 E Walnut St, Pasadena, CA 91188 (dinh.l.nguyen@kp.org).

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