Robert Q. Benedict - Healthcare

Business Case for a Non-Clinical Patient Companion in the Emergency Department at Providence

About Providence: 51 Hospitals, 1,000+ clinics, 29 MM patient visits, across 7 states.

Team: Internal partnership with Patient Access, Clinical teams, and external data analysts.
Sponsorship Levels: Global VP, VP, ED, Regional CFO
Scale: Regional

My role: Developed the post-pilot business case, open source deployment strategy, and financial model for the Patient Companion program. Business case included demonstrating revenue, savings, bad debt diversion, and Press Ganey increases equaling a 2.5x - 5x return on investment.

Impact: Regional CFO sponsorship and internal funding secured to deploy the Companion in two additional hospitals for nine months. Companion role is now adopted at five hospitals by clinical teams as well.

Video credit: Ben Knights

Journey Mapping and Prototyping

About Providence: 51 Hospitals, 1,000+ clinics, 29 MM patient visits, across 7 states.

Team: Blended team of outside agency IA Collaborative, Financial Assistance, and Patient Access.

Sponsorship Levels: Global VP, VP, ED
Scale: Enterprise

My role: Directed a blended vendor/staff team in the mapping of the patient financial assistance journey from awareness to receipt of financial assistance and developed three new financial experience prototypes: a completely redesigned estimate, a payment plan estimator, and a financial assistance calculator.

Findings: Provide patients with timely, personalized, and connected experiences in order to engage them in their financial journey.

Impact: The self-assessment calculator (left) progressed from prototype to enterprise-wide deployment. Research prompted a redesign of Providence.org financial assistance and bill pay pages.

Generative AI Workflow in Customer Service Chatbot

About Providence: 51 Hospitals, 1,000+ clinics, 29 MM patient visits, across 7 states.

Team: Internal partnership with Providence Digital Innovation Group (DIG).

Sponsorship Levels: Global VP, VP, ED

Scale: Enterprise

My role: Directed the internal innovation team to transform the financial assistance self-assessment calculator into an AI-driven chatbot dialog and roll it out across the entire enterprise.

Impact: Reduced friction for patients to self-assess whether they might qualify for financial assistance.