The medical field is probably one of the industries in dire need of automation since healthcare organizations are overburdened with obsolete, sophisticated processes and customized systems requiring manual management. Administrative tasks are stealing time that healthcare teams should spend on providing the best patient care.
The lack of proper digital automation results in poor patient care, exhausted staff, and financial losses. Many processes can be facilitated by digital process automation in healthcare, from patient admissions to billing insurance companies.
Learn what healthcare automation is, how it can help your organization, what digital process automation options are available today with real-life examples in our blog.
What is Healthcare Automation
Healthcare automation is implementing technology in administrative and clinical processes to automate standard workflows. This means a multitude of previously manual tasks performed by people, such as patient data entry, document filling, or patient tracking, can now be done by software. Automation in healthcare decreases human error risk, optimizes operations, and improves the patient experience.
Through automated systems, organizations can enhance the precision of patient data collection, monitor patient progress, and make accurate interventions. For example, automated patient monitoring systems monitor vital signs and inform healthcare personnel about alarming changes to intervene more quickly. Automation also optimizes administrative chores, communications, appointment reminders and scheduling, and handling clients’ bills and insurance claims.
Benefits of Automation in the Healthcare Industry
Integrating automation into healthcare has a lot of significant benefits that can considerably alter the functional and clinical processes in medical institutions. Automated systems ensure the confidentiality of patients’ information, eliminate errors and accelerate workflows, including scheduling and payments. Increased automation also allows healthcare professionals to concentrate on quality care instead of spending time on administrative operations.
This section explores the advantages of automation in hospitals and how it influences care.
Time Savings
Time waste and inefficient operation are a big problem for all organizations, especially in healthcare. According to the Medscape report featured in Billing Paradise, physicians spend 15.5 hours per week on administrative tasks. In healthcare, it also means many patients don’t receive adequate care, which worsens their outcomes. The only viable solution to this problem is automation in healthcare, as it considerably reduces time on repetitive tasks.
Costs Reduction
According to Health Affairs, administrative costs constitute 15-30% of the total healthcare expenditure, with the US spending much more on healthcare administration than other countries. Routine process automation enables employees to focus on their main tasks, not administrative side work, bridging more value to the organization. In healthcare, this also means cutting the cost of admission per patient, fewer overtime expenses, and personnel optimization.
Improved Revenue Cycle Management
Automated health care can significantly enhance revenue cycle management (RCM). Many processes, such as billing, verification of insurance coverage, or confirming patient identity, can now be automated with AI-based software. It makes the revenue cycle management process quick and effortless, reduces claim denials, and accelerates reimbursement.
Additionally, the software enables healthcare facilities to smoothen the cash flow as payment collection takes less time. Furthermore, patients don’t have to handle billing and payments manually, which minimizes mistakes and prevents revenue leaks for healthcare organizations. All this helps healthcare organizations focus on improving patient care since they do not have to deal with numerous repetitive problems.
Less Personal Burnout Among Healthcare Professionals
Automation tools reduce personnel burnout that results from monotonous and stressful work. A report by the American Medical Association states that over 50% of physicians experience burnout, with oncology respondents showing the highest rates (70%).
Automation in healthcare can improve the well-being of medical staff as they become less overburdened with patient data entry and appointment setting. Employees are spared from numerous administrative tasks and enjoy better accessibility of digital documents. They also benefit from clarified roles and responsibilities and adequate updates on any workflow changes.
Errors Reduction
In healthcare, the cost of yearly errors on drug prescriptions alone results in $20 billion losses, not to mention insurance billing errors affecting healthcare providers and patients. Another study reveals that 400,000 hospitalized patients face some form of preventable harm annually, with 200,000 patient deaths caused by preventable medical errors. The numbers are striking.
By simplifying hospital processes and reducing human involvement, even at the basic level, automation can help considerably reduce errors. Automated patient tracking and data-driven diagnostics help medical teams make the right treatment choices and prevent negative patient outcomes.
Increased Compliance and Patient Data Security
Paper-based processes increase security risks and interfere with effective workflows, especially now that many employees are working from home. Digital automation eliminates the need to hoard paper documents by converting them into digital copies, thus making monitoring and access much easier.
GenAI adoption for document generation allows healthcare institutions to put together and update documents quickly, while remaining compliant with industry regulations. Generative AI tools create standardized documents without human intervention, enhancing the security of sensitive patient data. That’s how automation of the healthcare industry benefits the protection of confidential information and compliance.
Your next read: Full Guide to Paper Processes Automation in Healthcare
Improved Treatment Outcomes
Being spared of administrative tasks, healthcare providers can focus on providing the best service to patients. Thanks to updated information in EHR systems and automatically collected data from remote health monitoring devices, they can make informed treatment decisions and achieve better outcomes.
Automated medical devices such as smart health trackers and continuous glucose monitors that remotely monitor patients show real-time patient progress. There are also more advanced robotic automation devices that assist with diagnostics and surgeries. The da Vinci Surgical System has made it possible to perform less invasive procedures more accurately, reducing complication rates and shortening recovery.
Read about 6 Steps to Digitally Transform a Healthcare Business
Easy Scheduling and Follow-up Care
Automation in healthcare brings major improvements in scheduling and follow-up care. Patients can see the real-time availability of their healthcare provider and book a meeting online or offline. Automated emails, calls, and push notifications help minimize missed appointments and manage patient volume.
One of the key roles and responsibilities of automation is follow-up care. HealthLoop is an example of the toots where patients get reminders for medications, tests, and follow-up or post-treatment appointments. Such systems automatically flag patients requiring follow-ups and help improve patient satisfaction and experience by simplifying the scheduling process.
5 Real-Life Examples of Automation in Hospitals
Automation makes hospitals and healthcare systems more efficient and enhances the quality of care and outcomes. From the management of the mental health needs of patients to complex diagnostic tools, automation is essential to improving processes in the healthcare system. Here are five real-life examples of how hospitals apply automation.
Mental Health EHR Software
A modernized EHR system for behavioral health with mobile applications that let users fill out surveys, schedule appointments, track their treatment plan, and earn achievements. This system is used in the US to enhance patient involvement in therapy. The Northern Michigan Community Health Innovation Region (NMCHIR) integrated the program, which serves over 800,000 people across 31 counties to improve mental health outcomes. For more details, read the case study.
Remote Patient Monitoring Software
A remote patient monitoring solution collects health data directly from patients at home using cellular and Wi-Fi technology and sends it to healthcare personnel. It goes with an RPM app that monitors and stores data from wearables like blood pressure monitors, scales, and glucose meters. The app enables patients to fill in data effortlessly and allows professionals to monitor and address any issues in real time. For more details, read the case study.
Medication Management Systems
Automating the process of prescribing, dispensing, and monitoring medications can be achieved through the use of medication management systems. Cerner Millennium Medication Management is one of such systems, connecting medication data with patient health records to facilitate better decision-making. Medication management solutions play a crucial role in delivering medications accurately and improving outcomes and pharmacy operations.
AI-powered Heart Monitoring System
The software addresses the weaknesses of conventional heart monitoring systems by applying AI. Previous approaches relied heavily on human resources, making them slow, error-prone, and difficult to scale. The combined expertise of cardiologists and machine learning resulted in an AI-powered heart monitoring system and a neural network model that categorizes heart problems with minimal supervision. The system automatically reviews events, rejects those below a 50% threshold, and efficiently classifies data. For more details, read the case study.
Ion Robotic Bronchoscopy
Another example of automation in healthcare is the Ion Robotic Bronchoscopy system for minimally invasive peripheral lung biopsy. With the help of advanced robotics, it helps professionals reach the most difficult parts of the lungs, allowing for more accurate and efficient biopsies while minimizing patient risk and recovery time. For lung cancer patients, time to intervention is crucial, changing the course of the disease, and the Ion Robotic System accelerates diagnosis. It is ultra-thin and flexible, enabling professionals to biopsy even the smallest and most distant nodules in all 18 lung segments. Since entering the market in 2019, Ion has revolutionized lung cancer patient care, reduced the time needed to receive treatment, and delivered innovative technology and data analytics to lung cancer centers.
Empeek for Implementing Automation in Healthcare
Empeek has completed multiple successful digitizing business projects, including the healthcare IoT app development for healthcare organizations implementing digital process automation for small businesses and nationwide operating companies.
We have already helped several health organizations reach and monitor their patients remotely using vital signs-checking devices that send information directly to healthcare staff’s dashboards.
Our other project for a drug-testing company facilitated the obsolete Windows-based workflow, resulting in losses, customer dissatisfaction, delays, and the inability of employees to work from home. We tailored and integrated web applications that are accessible and manageable from any device based on microservices. It helped the company dramatically reduce the time of client onboarding and request processing and enabled it to compete with larger companies offering the same or similar services.You can find more projects on our portfolio page. If you want to improve your business efficiency and profitability through automation solutions – we are glad to help you! Get in touch with us to implement new ideas.
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