Healthcare is always in need of help. We thought EHR was going to be a panacea for record keeping, and in many ways it was an excellent concept, yet one fraught with workflow inefficiencies and alerts that made no sense to clinical users. Next came HIE, also a great concept. Having access to relevant, up-to-date information from a variety of sources at the point-of-care is a game-changer, yet the reality of SSO and interoperability have made it difficult in real life. It is great to share records across the country, have more consistent and detailed documentation, but with added complexity comes new and added challenges that are now in need of solutions to take these advancements to the next level. In comes AI, RPA, and healthcare automation. The ability to make the documentation process more efficient and speed reimbursements through the use of machines seems like the future of technology. But, where to begin in 2020?
Small Steps
Incremental progress is the best use of automation and AI in healthcare. We can’t automate everything, and robots cannot take over many of the human-like processes required for healthcare to operate on a daily basis. But, we can infuse it with an improved process that eliminates bottlenecks and increases productivity. Revenue cycle health is an excellent place to start. These technologies can sift through vast amounts of data and adjust or correct nuances in ways that can make tasks in claims management vastly more efficient and effective. A small revenue cycle project often kick-starts other ways to incorporate AI and automation in the healthcare ecosystem. Most revenue cycle projects are up and running within 30 days, and a fast ROI is achieved through greater efficiency, reduced days in A/R, and more “dollars in the door.”
Deloitte states: “RPA represents an opportunity to accelerate business strategy and maximize both growth and organizational performance through the automation of select processes and the redeployment or removal of excess capacity.”
Data Migrations
EHR data migrations are often a slow, expensive process for the health system. Data is not always migrated from the legacy system to the new system, resulting in hundreds of hours of manual data entry, organizing, and checking to be sure the information makes the transition. Automation makes data migrations easier to manage, simple and fast. Legacy systems are often used to “toggle between” for information, which means licensing agreements must be continued, making it difficult to sunset the old when implementing the new system. Automation helps #bridgethegaps, establishing a one-place-shop for improved operational efficiency and data management. In every data migration project, data was available sooner, there were fewer hiccups, and role-based users were able to improve system use. This is because automation works differently than an HL7 feed. It organizes the information, making sure there are no duplicates, and that the information being brought over is useful and meaningful to end-users. Appointments, schedules, registrations, immunizations, and physician preference cards – data that is not possible to bring over via traditional methods are available from day one of “Go Live,” increasing satisfaction and furthering adoption efforts.
Look Outside the Box
Sure, revenue cycle tasks are easy and make absolute sense to infuse with AI and automation. After you see the value, it might be interesting to look at additional areas like human resources and change management for a boost. HR functions and updates, or upgrades to systems and users can be more efficiently managed with automation. Adding automation to HR enhances the efficiency of the HR department by freeing employees from tedious manual tasks, and allowing them to focus on complex areas that require human interaction. Population health initiatives can also benefit from automation, as it can accurately perform sorting, processing, complex calculations, and organizing data from multiple systems. The process is efficient and effective across financial, administrative, and clinical areas. This provides a wider lens into issues that could require follow-up, like chronic care management, social determinants of health, or medication adherence. Information is gathered effortlessly, without the administrative data burden associated with manual searches and data entry.
Performance and Analytics
An automated productivity dashboard delivers drill-down capabilities for exploring the data behind performance metrics. This brings value to health systems, teams, or role-based users looking to run productivity reports, metrics, KPI’s, or any type of reporting. With a totally customizable view, a productivity dashboard can be implemented within days, without vendor involvement. In addition, automation can pull reports from multiple applications, departments, or systems, load the data to compare contractual adjustments, run calculations and comparisons, then format to meet your organizational needs, delivering to the system of choice. This style of reporting can be completed with or without a dashboard, providing a savings in time and productivity from the hours spent organizing data and generating reports. Analytics, updates, and any type of reporting can be improved using healthcare automation. Results can be delivered to Excel, SharePoint, spreadsheets, individuals, or ancillary software solutions.
Patient Portal Integration
Patient portal updates are often done manually, with the integration from portal or kiosk to EHR, a bulky one. Maybe handhelds are used, or other applications are needed to speed information from the patient to the portal or kiosk. Automation aggregates data inputs from multiple sources, contextualizes information checking against all sources, and can even run analytics before delivering it to the physician in an actionable format needed for patient care. Whether patient kiosk, portal, or telehealth solution, automation allows efficient data transfer to another system, in the format, feature, and functionality needed for care delivery. Notes and additional information can be included, speeding the time from messaging to contact. Optimizing the user experience allows for faster adoption of portal and telehealth technology. Providers have a vehicle to connect with patients, and patients can participate in their care by powering navigation from the portal, kiosk, and telehealth solution to the EHR.
There are numerous ways to increase productivity, eliminate manual data entry, and improve operational processes with the addition of automation, AI, and machine learning solutions. Having an ally like Boston WorkStation, a digital workforce, allows a myriad of possibilities to optimize or eliminate repetitive tasking, reduce administrative data fatigue, and increase time for high-touch processes that require a “human” component.
Why Boston Software Systems?
Boston Software Systems is the high performance standard in healthcare RPA. We exclusively focus on the hospital, health system, and healthcare provider organization industry sectors. No other RPA company possesses our 30 years of expertise, or level of experience in clinical, administrative, financial, and revenue cycle health.
Call us at 866-653-5105, or let’s hop on a 30-minute call. We’re also available to connect via Twitter, @bossoft. We’re happy to help you present revenue cycle optimization to your C-Suite. It’s a valuable resource to decrease days in A/R and increase bottom line revenue.