What Are the Ethical Implications of Artificial Intelligence(AI) in Home-Based Healthcare?

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AI is no longer on the horizon. It’s here, reshaping how care-at-home providers operate. From automating documentation to predicting outcomes and surfacing clinical insights, artificial intelligence has rapidly become part of the toolkit for home-based care agencies striving to do more with less.

But as technology evolves, so must we. The promise of AI in care at home goes beyond efficiency—AI should enhance experiences on both the patient and the clinical side in a responsible manner.

At Maxwell TEC (MTEC), we know innovation must be balanced with intention. As agencies continue integrating AI into everyday operations, ethical considerations must be part of the blueprint. True innovation means designing technology that supports human care rather than replace it.

In this blog, we explore ethical AI use in home-based healthcare, demonstrate how AI is improving care-at-home outcomes & reducing clinician workload, and outline the keys to AI technology for care-at-home success—ensuring that innovation truly supports both patients and providers safely, meaningfully, and responsibly.

Ethical AI Use in Home-Based Healthcare

Home-based care plays a critical role in a patient's recovery, bridging the gap between hospital discharge and independence. AI has unlocked new ways to support clinicians, streamline operations, and deliver better outcomes through predictive analytics, personalized care plans, and remote monitoring.

But with great power comes great responsibility. Because AI tools rely on massive volumes of data, protecting patient privacy is foundational when integrating new technologies into an agency’s operations. Agencies must think critically about how data is collected, stored, and used, ensuring that ethical frameworks are in place at every step.

MTEC Chairman and Co-Founder, Tom Maxwell, explains, “When it comes to AI in the care-at-home space, the type of model being used is essential.” This doesn’t just mean avoiding obvious ethical errors, such as uploading medical records into ChatGPT. Rather, it’s about running secure, controlled models that are responsibly designed to shape the data and deliver accurate, actionable results while safeguarding private information.

The Maxwell TEC team understands the importance of AI technology, that’s why it’s safely and securely infused into everything we do. Whether it be our nanaCONNECT modules, analytics, or our consulting services, our team takes an ethical and purposeful approach when utilizing AI in our strategic solutions.

We begin by narrowly defining the specific clinical or operational problem we aim to solve. Then, we ask questions like: How will AI help our clinical users deliver better care to their patients?

In home-based care, the bar for accuracy is extremely high; trustworthy results are critical. Users should clearly understand what AI does to solve the problem, how it supports their decision-making, and its impact on patient care.

“Our role as Maxwell TEC’s Product Team is to balance innovation with integrity, ensuring our use of AI is always safe, accurate, fair, and accountable,” says Andy O’Connell, Director of Product. “This approach is embedded into how we build products by keeping purpose first. Identifying the purpose behind our products infuses integrity and ensures our use of AI is ethical.”

One of the biggest issues that can transpire from unethical AI use within care at home is the loss of trust. When ethical implications and patient privacy aren’t fully considered, big problems can arise:

• Patients may feel unsafe or exploited: When agencies handle Protected Health Information (PHI) carelessly or do not provide context for the use of AI in patient care, not only can patients be caught off-guard—the care agency could also be in violation of HIPAA and more.
• Clinicians may become reluctant to adopt AI tools going forward: When caregivers don’t fully trust or understand how AI is leveraged in the technologies they use or how their agency manages patient information, they’re less likely to adopt tools that can make their jobs more efficient.

AI-based tools require thoughtful implementation. As agencies apply AI to enhance care, it’s critical to keep transparency, trust, and patient understanding at the center. That means clearly communicating how AI is used, what data is collected, and ensuring patients provide informed consent with full understanding of how their information is being used.

Rushed implementations combined with a lack of transparency and accountability around an agency’s use of AI can lead to poor adoption, reduced engagement, compliance issues, and even negative patient outcomes.

Improving Care-At-Home Outcomes & Reducing Clinician Workload Through AI

One of the most powerful applications of AI in home-based care is its ability to detect patterns in behavior, pointing to bigger issues that might otherwise go unnoticed. For example, Maxwell TEC solution partner, Levo, offers a clinician retention tool that does just that. If an employee starts their day later than usual or experiences multiple patient deaths in a short period, AI can help surface potential issues and guide the appropriate response.

Levo's 15% reduction in 90-day turnover demonstrates the impact of having a structured AI model that delivers personalized insights for every team member. It's less about replacing documentation entirely and more about using AI to help assess and enhance the existing processes.

On the patient side, BEREAVE, one of four comprehensive communication modules in Maxwell TEC’s nanaCONNECT platform, analyzes messages received to further assist in determining the best type of response to deliver back to the user. BEREAVE’s AI model provides the opportunity to send more personalized and supportive messages back to the user, thanks to its ability to filter based on sentiment. Instead of surfing through hundreds of daily responses, BEREAVE leverages AI to categorize these responses in seconds, enabling your team to uncover valuable patient insights that shape future referral strategies, agency initiatives, and improve the overall care experience.

AI isn’t just transforming how care is delivered; it’s changing how care teams work. Beyond improving patient outcomes, AI has become a valuable tool for clinicians, helping reduce administrative burdens and improving overall accuracy.

In addition to the immediate cost savings of modernizing from paper-based direct mail methods, BEREAVE’s AI features ultimately save countless hours spent by hospice bereavement coordinators and volunteers on repetitive administrative duties. Still, success with AI doesn’t happen by default. As AI has become the new norm, ethical implementation standards are critical to ensure the tool leads your agency down a path of success.

At Maxwell TEC, we believe AI should elevate care, not further complicate it. That’s why we help agencies implement tech-enabled tools that are practical, trustworthy, and built around people.

Voice-enabled AI tools from MTEC Solution Partner, nVoq, provide almost instant documentation, freeing up clinicians’ time and energy for the work that matters most: providing exceptional care for their patients. With nVoq’s AI features saving clinicians 30-90 minutes per day in total documentation alone, AI and tech-enabled care tools aren’t simply boosting efficiency—they're fighting clinician burnout by shifting the focus back to providing high-quality direct patient care.

AI Technology for Care-at-Home Success

Human oversight remains essential to the responsible use of AI in care-at-home settings. Clinicians and caregivers must have the ability to review AI-generated insights, apply their professional judgment, and make the final call on care decisions. Technology should enhance that judgment—not replace it.

When implemented with intention, AI can drive real impact: better patient outcomes, less administrative burden for clinicians, and stronger performance across the agency. Delivering these outcomes depends on a clear and unwavering commitment to ethical use.

At Maxwell TEC, we partner with care-at-home providers to implement AI with clarity, integrity, and impact. Our solutions are purpose-built to ease clinician workload, enhance patient outcomes, and scale care in a way that is both ethical and effective. We work together with your team to ensure AI integration reflects your organization’s core values and strategic objectives. Together, we can transform home-based care by turning challenges into opportunities for better, more compassionate outcomes.

This blog was originally published as "Ethical Use of AI in Post-Acute Healthcare: Balancing Innovation with Responsibility" by Cole Sorensen on July 9, 2024, for Maxwell Healthcare Associates. The Maxwell TEC editorial team has since updated this article to ensure accuracy and relevance.