Emergency rooms and urgent care centers exist in a state of constant pressure. Patient volumes continue to rise, staff shortages persist, and financial margins remain razor-thin. The traditional model—where patient access and operational efficiency hinge on manual processes—can no longer sustain itself.
The solution? It is not just better staffing or expanded capacity. The real shift comes from reimagining the entire urgent care patient journey through AI and automation.
By 2025, 90% of hospitals will rely on AI-powered technology for early diagnosis and remote monitoring. Healthcare leaders who resist this change are not just choosing inefficiency; they are actively compromising revenue, patient outcomes, and staff well-being.
Let’s get into the details of how AI can alleviate ER burden and explore what AI can do for you now.
The Business of Speed: Why the First Five Minutes Matter More Than the Next Five Hours in ER Settings
Emergency and urgent care facilities often focus on what happens after a patient enters the system. The reality is, what happens before a patient arrives—and how quickly they move through intake—determines everything else. The longer patients wait for triage, the greater the bottleneck for physicians, the higher the frustration, and the more likely they are to leave without receiving care.
Walkouts leave patients frustrated, while costing ERs and urgent care centers millions in revenue annually. AI-powered scheduling, e-triage, and intake automation, on the other hand, address this head-on. Not by rushing care, but by eliminating unnecessary delays before the clinical team is even involved.
A traditional urgent care model relies on front-desk staff to check in patients, manually collect insurance information, and process paperwork—often while phones ring off the hook. AI-driven digital front doors fundamentally change this equation. Instead of patients arriving uninformed and unprepared, they can check in online, undergo pre-visit symptom assessment, and be guided to the most appropriate care setting before stepping foot in the facility, which enhances their overall experience and reduces walkouts drastically.
AI as a Force Multiplier: Doing More with the Workforce You Already Have
Adding more staff is not always an option, nor is it necessarily the best solution. Workforce efficiency means highly trained professionals can focus on the work that requires their expertise. Nurses spending time on redundant paperwork instead of patient care is not just inefficiency; it’s an unnecessary burden affecting their wellbeing and the wellbeing of the entire organization.
AI-powered symptom checkers, appointment schedulers, and e-triage free up nurses and front-line staff by assessing patient needs before arrival. Instead of patients presenting at the front desk with no prior screening, automated triage tools determine urgency levels and direct individuals, accordingly, reducing unnecessary ER visits and ensuring the right patients get seen at the right time.
A good example of how screening tools can prevent unnecessary ER overcrowding is the recent surge in flu cases overwhelming emergency departments. Many of these patients arrive with mild symptoms—fever, cough, sore throat—none of which require hospitalization.
In a traditional system, these patients occupy valuable ER space, diverting attention from true emergencies while also increasing the risk of spreading infection to others. With AI-powered symptom checkers and telemedicine integration, these patients could be redirected before arriving at the hospital, connecting them instead with primary care providers or virtual consultations. This not only protects ER capacity for critical cases but also prevents the spread of contagious illnesses in waiting rooms.
Beyond triage, hospitals and urgent care centers are increasingly turning to self-service kiosks to handle in-person registration. Rather than a line of patients waiting to check in manually, kiosks enable rapid intake, reducing bottlenecks and eliminating the need for additional front-desk personnel.
Workforce strain is not just a staffing problem; it is an operational problem. AI does not replace people. Instead, it allows them to practice at the top of their license.
Revenue at Risk: The Cost of Failing to Automate
Technology in healthcare is often framed as an “investment in the future.” That framing is misleading. AI and automation are not about preparing for a distant reality; they are about avoiding immediate financial losses right now.
- 71% of healthcare leaders expect improved profitability in 2025 due to AI adoption.
- The AI in healthcare market will grow 524% by 2030, reaching $208.2 billion.
- AI-integrated medical imaging is set to expand at a 26.5% CAGR, enhancing diagnostic precision.
Yet despite these trends, many hospitals and urgent care centers still rely on manual processes that drain revenue and increase patient leakage. And the cost of inefficiency is measurable.
Without automation, urgent care facilities leave revenue on the table as staff remains bogged down with administrative work. Without digital scheduling, patients either fail to show up or overcrowd facilities at peak times. Without AI-assisted triage, the wrong patients end up in the ER while others wait too long for care.
Steer Health’s AI-powered solutions are designed to close these gaps—not through incremental changes, but by rethinking the patient journey from the ground up.
The Future Playbook: What High-Performing ER and Urgent Care Centers Will Look Like in 2025
The gap between high-performing and struggling healthcare facilities is widening. Executives who treat AI as a theoretical improvement will fall behind those who see it as an urgent necessity.
A January 2025 MGMA Stat poll found that AI tools (32%) are now the top tech priority for healthcare leaders, surpassing EHR usability (30%) and revenue cycle management (RCM).
The organizations that will lead the industry in the coming years are the ones that implement a fully integrated AI-driven system that:
- Removes friction at the first point of contact—guiding patients to the right care through a digital front door.
- Optimizes scheduling and triage—ensuring high-risk patients receive immediate attention while diverting non-urgent cases to appropriate settings.
- Reduces front-desk workload—leveraging AI-driven kiosks and automated symptom checkers to eliminate manual bottlenecks.
- Maximizes staff efficiency—allowing nurses and physicians to focus on clinical care rather than administrative burdens.
The facilities that thrive will not be those that hire the most staff, but those that deploy technology to make every team member more effective.
Final Thoughts: AI is Not the Future—It’s the Present
Healthcare leaders often discuss AI in hypothetical terms: What will it look like in five years? What role might automation play in the future? The reality is that these technologies are not on the horizon, but they are already shaping the financial and operational outcomes of hospitals today.
Emergency and urgent care executives who act now will not just stay competitive. They will simply lead. Those who wait risk falling behind in a landscape that will not wait for them to catch up.
The question is no longer if AI will transform urgent care and emergency medicine. The question is who will leverage it effectively, and who will be left struggling with outdated processes as the industry moves forward.
Steer Health is a healthcare growth and automation platform built to address some of the industry’s most persistent challenges: unfilled provider slots, underutilized facilities, complex insurance processes, and clinician shortages. Recognized as a Best in KLAS solution, we enhance patient access, streamline workflows, and simplify communication between patients and staff. Our solutions—including Digital Front Doors for ER and urgent care, eRegistration and eTriage, and AI Voice Assistants—help healthcare professionals operate more efficiently while driving revenue growth.
