Actual Examples of RPA in the Healthcare Industry

Today's healthcare industry suffers from staffing shortages, increased patient levels, and dwindling inventories. The troubles occurred when the healthcare industry was already having difficulties. Many rural hospitals have closed, leaving large areas of the population behind.

Everyone is searching for answers. Unfortunately, managers can't find the answers by cutting corners in the office or hiring healthcare workers that are simply not available. There are not any easy solutions for managers and medical providers. There may not be. However, one thing could be taken advantage of that could help - technology.

Technology has advanced enough today that workflow automation has come a long way. No, it isn't about replacing your workforce. It is about enhancement. Imagine reducing the stress for your entire office staff and yourself, too. What if investing in this tech also helped patients and delivered higher returns for your facility? Read further to learn about RPA and its difference in healthcare.

Table of Contents:

1. What is RPA?
2. Identifying Where Automation Can Help
3. Benefits of RPA in Healthcare
4. Great Examples of Automation in Healthcare
5. Healthcare Automation Specialists Follow Strict Guidelines

What is RPA?

RPA stands for robotic process automation. It is a type of intelligent system automation for workflow processes. RPA uses available technology to mimic everyday office tasks, leaving your healthcare workers to tend to patients. As a result, your patients get improved healthcare, and your staff gets more satisfaction from their jobs because they are helping patients, not typing.

RPA is known by other terms, like intelligent process automation or workflow automation. It is using technology to improve productivity systematically. In healthcare or any business, you can use AI-powered productivity tools, apps, and platforms to automate regularly performed, repetitive office tasks.

You can use intelligent process automation to configure a set of actions or define a script. These are sometimes also referred to as bots. These programs can mimic specific tasks, such as triggering responses, like emailing the patient their next appointment date automatically, or processing the bill and sending the invoices to the appropriate parties for payment. As a result, your healthcare workers will be overjoyed to spend less time filling in forms or moving files.

Identifying Where Automation Can Help

One of the keys to successful workflow process automation is identifying the key areas where RPA can help your business. Healthcare is a business, too. Looking at how automation has been used successfully in other industries, it is easy to see where it can be used successfully in a medical office.

Recent studies on workflow processes show that tasks done regularly, have set rules to follow to completion, and have clearly defined variables are the best for automation. The job's complexity can often direct the amount of automation or the available technology. Determining the type of automation that will best enhance your specific workflow requires having an expert walk through your data and business flow with you.

Every office is unique, even if following HIPAA is the same for everyone. To get the most out of any RPA, you need to work intimately with your workflow designer so that the most complex tasks can be automated. Time is money; wasted time also equates to added anxiety and poor health. So get the most out of automation, and save time, money, stress, and health!

Benefits of RPA in Healthcare

When you use RPA in healthcare, you immediately see the benefits. The benefits are not just in the ROI for your facility or medical office, but in your stress levels and in happier, more productive staff. You also see it in your patient's better health outcomes. Here are some other positive value benefits of including RPA in a healthcare setting.

• Improved Billing Efficiency: When you improve the efficiency of your billing process, you also improve the payment collection process. It economizes the labor spent on sending out billing. It’s a win-win!
• Cost Reductions: 78% of predictable physical work can be automated, according to a report by the McKinsey Institute. While healthcare may be more hands-on, much of the back-end office work falls in this category.
• Improved Diagnosis and Treatment: How can RPA help with diagnosis and treatment? Through clinical decision support systems (CDSSs), which you may already be using regularly in your office. A CDSS is an example of an RPA in healthcare.
• Reduction in Patient Deaths: Recent research has shown that significant reduction of patient deaths in offices that have incorporated automation. Overall, patients had a reduction in health complications, too.
• Higher ROIs and Employee Satisfaction: Wait, both? Yes! With automation, you get both higher ROIs and greater employee satisfaction. (Let's not forget that you get lower stress levels.) Studies have shown that adding automation to back-end office processes in healthcare facilities causes improvement in all areas.

Great Examples of Automation in Healthcare

There are many excellent benefits to adding automation to your healthcare facility. Where to begin? What process should you automate first? What would automation be great at in the medical business? Here is a list of ideas of how you can use RPA or intelligent process automation in a healthcare or medical setting.

• Billing Processing: The billing processing can be automated to send claims, bills, first-line inquiries, or follow-ups at scheduling or patient check-out.
• Scheduling: You can use RPA bots, chatbots, and other automation features to interact with patients to schedule upcoming appointments, cancel appointments, or change appointments. Patients like feeling more in control and the ease of doing this on their schedule without being on hold.
• Infection Protocols: Did you know that RPA can assist your staff with infection control protocols? Bots can help with triage tasks, tracking, screening, CDC data, managing inventory, patient data, setting patient care plans, and setting threshold alerts.
• Communications: Email blasts, internal communications, and other essential queries or vendor orders can be automated.
• Remote Care: Chatbots or scripts can deliver specific instructions to patients to follow care plans or send information for monitoring.
• Data Entry: Bots can enter data in a variety of ways. They can take data from scanned information or even from natural language sources. With today's tech, you don't have to sit in front of a screen to type your data manually.

Healthcare Automation Specialists Follow Strict Guidelines

Finding help to automate your back-end workflow means that you need to find someone that understands your data. In the healthcare industry, your data must follow strict regulations like HIPAA. You may already have regular privacy reviews with a data specialist.

Those reports can be a time-saver and help you prepare for your automation review. At DataCose, our expert data specialists can help you step through your data, and the steps are taken to process it, bill your clients, enter it into your database, and help your patients. The idea is to get an intimate view of how you move the information through your office. In addition, we want to help you focus on your patient and create bots for repetitive tasks.

Fill out the form below. When you're ready for a no-obligation review, we can help. Our automation experts will give you a call and we can show you how intelligent process automation can transform your workplace, improve the healthcare for your patients, make your staff happier, grow your returns, and help you sleep better at night. Let's talk.