Evaluating the predictive ability of natural language processing in identifying tertiary/quaternary cases in prioritization workflows for interhospital transfer

Objectives: Tertiary and quaternary (TQ) care refers to complex cases requiring highly specialized health services. Our study aimed to compare the ability of a natural language processing (NLP) model to an existing human workflow in predictively identifying TQ cases for transfer requests to an academic health center.

Materials and methods: Data on interhospital transfers were queried from the electronic health record for the 6-month period from July 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020. The NLP model was allowed to generate predictions on the same cases as the human predictive workflow during the study period. These predictions were then retrospectively compared to the true TQ outcomes.

Results: There were 1895 transfer cases labeled by both the human predictive workflow and the NLP model, all of which had retrospective confirmation of the true TQ label. The NLP model receiver operating characteristic curve had an area under the curve of 0.91. Using a model probability threshold of ≥0.3 to be considered TQ positive, accuracy was 81.5% for the NLP model versus 80.3% for the human predictions (P = .198) while sensitivity was 83.6% versus 67.7% (P<.001).

Discussion: The NLP model was as accurate as the human workflow but significantly more sensitive. This translated to 15.9% more TQ cases identified by the NLP model.

Conclusion: Integrating an NLP model into existing workflows as automated decision support could translate to more TQ cases identified at the onset of the transfer process.