Key Takeaways:
- Skills shortages and burnout are impacting healthcare provision worldwide
- Intelligent workflow automation can relieve the burden by handling repetitive, rule-based tasks
- Patients, staff and organizations alike benefit from improved efficiency, speed and accuracy
- Phased, prioritized rollout enables a self-sustaining investment model
Automation technologies are transforming industries all over the world by introducing new levels of efficiency and accuracy. This technology can take over rule-based tasks, interacting with data and other applications so that these processes can be automated - and at far greater speed and accuracy than humans can achieve.
In healthcare specifically, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), represents a powerful approach to handling data entry, form processing and system integrations.
These efficiencies can make a real difference anywhere, but are especially valuable in healthcare, where staffing shortages are acute and efficiency can help improve outcomes and even save lives. In this blog, we’ll explore how intelligent process automation in healthcare works in practice.
Understanding Today's Staffing Challenges in Healthcare
The statistics around the shortage in healthcare workers make sobering reading, and these issues are having a real impact on the scale and quality of care that can be provided.
The World Health Organization has projected a global shortfall of 11 million health workers by 2030, with lower-income countries being affected the most severely. The situation is equally concerning in the United States, where the American Hospital Association has estimated a shortage of up to 3.2 million healthcare workers by 2026 - nearly 1% of the entire population.
This staffing crisis is creating a dangerous cycle. With existing healthcare workers having to do more to cover the gaps, more than a third globally suffer from burnout, further exacerbating turnover and shortages. The consequences for patient care are severe, with unsafe care estimated to contribute to more than three million deaths annually and harm to as many as 10% of all patients.
Despite these pressing challenges, there remain concerns that healthcare automation will replace human endeavor and put people’s jobs at risk. But in reality, digital process innovations will serve to fill gaps in the workforce instead.
How Automation Fills Critical Gaps
Intelligent process automation in healthcare works as a digital assistant for employees, automating the more repetitive jobs that can take up so much time and energy day-to-day. Automation technology has now advanced to such an extent that it can be trained on a huge range of human processes, and then execute them autonomously 24/7 at an extremely high level of accuracy.
Typical use cases for healthcare automation include (and are by no means limited to):
Appointment Scheduling
Digital assistants can automatically organize appointments and send out notifications to patients, reducing the workload on the front desk and maximizing the number of appointments a practice can fulfil.
Claims Processing
Information in forms can be automatically extracted and entered into databases and systems, far faster and more accurately than staff can.
Patient Records Management
Similar to the previous point, data entry for new patients, or updating information for existing ones, can be covered by workflow automation without the need for much (or even any) human intervention.
Repeat Prescription Management
Routine prescription renewals can be processed automatically, cutting out the administration of phone calls, appointments and exchanging further information between doctors, nurses and pharmacies.
Analytics and Reporting
Automated systems can compile the data required for compliance reports, and generate those reports; similarly, detailed analytics and insights can inform better decision-making for greater efficiency and improved patient outcomes.
The Balanced Scorecard: Financial Benefits and ROI of Intelligent Automation in Healthcare
To truly understand how healthcare automation can be beneficial, it’s important to drill down beyond the headlines of faster processes, greater efficiency and financial savings.
At Ciklum, we believe the benefits are better represented as a ‘Balanced Scorecard’ that addresses different areas, from front-line care to back-office administration. Collectively, this scorecard paints a more compelling picture to key decision-makers and stakeholders when trying to make the case for healthcare automation investment:
Implementing Automation in Healthcare: Requirements and Challenges
Making all these theoretical benefits a practical reality isn’t necessarily simple. It requires careful planning and consideration around how and where the technology is applied, and the impact that it will have on the existing workforce.
From our extensive experience deploying intelligent process automation in healthcare, there are three key factors to success:
Identifying The Biggest Gains
The best way to approach the implementation of healthcare automation is to identify the processes where the biggest improvements can be found. These are those that take up the most staff time, are the least efficient, and/or are the most prone to human error.
This enables prioritization of investment and deployment, and can ultimately lead to a self-sustainable model where large and quick returns on investment can be used to fund automation rollout in other areas.
Achieving Workforce Buy-In
Change management is vital to engage employees with the capabilities of the technology. This is not only so that they can adjust practically to automated healthcare workflows, but also because long-serving employees in particular may be resistant to change and wary about what it means for their jobs.
Education on the benefits and impact of healthcare automation should come hand-in-hand with implementation, especially around how it can relieve staff of the more mundane, repetitive parts of their work.
Overcoming Implementation Challenges
There are technical considerations to account for, as well. Many healthcare bodies have complex legacy IT systems, a network of existing enterprise agreements and licensing models, and a strong emphasis on privacy and security in what is a highly regulated industry. This means that a customized approach, an informed choice of platform, and the ability to integrate other functions like AI or document processing, is crucial.
In Summary: The Ciklum Approach to Healthcare Process Automation
At Ciklum, we believe very strongly in the self-sustainable approach to healthcare automation: starting with pilot projects that deliver quick, sizable gains, and reinvesting those gains to extend the rollout across an organization. Planned with care, this approach means that an initial investment can generate returns that significantly offset the costs of wider implementation, making the overall automation journey more financially viable.
With a strong foundation in place, healthcare organizations like yours can go on to incorporate more advanced technologies like AI and machine learning. And with the help of Ciklum’s experience in all these technologies in healthcare and pharma, we can ensure you take a balanced approach that maximizes technological potential, transforms operational efficiency, and supports both staff and patients alike.
To find out more on how we can help you on your automation journey, talk to the Ciklum team today.
