It’s the end for the intelligent telephone assistant Zoé from Bonjour-santé at the Angus medical clinic. The Press reported Friday that patients are unable to make themselves understood by this robot supposed to take calls and answer their questions without clinic staff having to intervene.
“In light of recent discussions and a growing level of dissatisfaction, we have made the decision to completely cease the use of Zoé at the Angus clinic,” announced Nadia Moniqui, of Tootelo, which oversees Bonjour-santé, in an email sent to employees Friday.
The Angus Clinic was one of nine medical clinics in the province using the intelligent patient telephone assistant named Zoe. This service, offered by the software development company Bonjour-santé, has been gradually deployed since December 2022 in the Montreal and Quebec regions.
Zoé’s goal is to take patient calls and answer their questions without clinic staff having to intervene. According to Bonjour-santé, Zoé provides time savings of 84% for clinics. More than 60% of calls would be handled without the intervention of an employee.
However, many patients reported their bad experience with Zoé, describing the robot as “inadequate”, “catastrophic” and which made people “lose their patience”, as reported The Press Friday.
(Re)read “A robot that “goes around in circles””
Regain patient trust
The performance and use of Zoé had been the subject of “several discussions within the Angus Clinic in recent months”, specifies M.me Moniqui in her email.
Improvement measures have been put in place for several weeks and although 40% of Zoé’s intentions are directed back towards the secretariat, this does not seem enough to regain your confidence and that of the patients.
Nadia Moniqui, of Tootelo, in the email sent to employees Friday
“The deployment of this solution was based on very good intentions, but sometimes you have to show humility and when you innovate, you have to be ready to make mistakes,” adds Mme Moniqui.
She says a plan will be put in place to minimize the impact this change will have on patients, doctors and staff. “We are talking about an additional volume of around 19,000 calls per month, which cannot be taken up without a concrete action plan to meet the telephone need. » New solutions will be presented next week to clinic employees.