Gartner predicted that half of healthcare CIOs would use Robotic Process Automation (RPA) by 2023. And they were right. More than 50% of healthcare organizations have already invested in RPA initiatives, compared to 5% in 2020. These organizations have discovered that RPA can result in a 30%-50% cost savings over manual data entry and process tasks.
The popularity of this “smart automation” technology is in its ability to empower the human workforce, by providing a “digital workforce” that works exactly as humans do, inputting, organizing, and moving data points at a computer screen, yet with precise accuracy, and requiring no sick days, benefit plans, or time off. While this digital workforce takes care of machine-capable tasks that require no human interaction, your human workforce can devote their time to tasks that do require a human element. Machine-oriented solutions like AI and RPA cannot decipher harmful actions, so humans need to perform those higher-value tasks that require empathy or caring. The end goal for machines is just to complete the task.
The Cost of Missed Appointments
Missed appointments cost healthcare as much as $150 billion annually. When the pandemic overwhelmed healthcare staff and systems, RPA bots streamlined the process, giving people back their time and making it easier to schedule visits. Bots can correctly schedule appointments, scanning wait lists for available slots, without haggling over dates. They also ensure accuracy, compliance, and can handle high volumes efficiently, allowing patients to schedule day or night. In addition, if vital information is needed to schedule an appointment to a specialist, bots are adept at collecting, inputting, and sharing vital data.
Automate Patient Reminders and Ongoing Communication
75% of patients complete pre-appointment registrations beforehand. Automation can send out the right pre-visit forms, and route completed forms to the right person at the right location, saving humans time and improving the scheduling process. In addition, automation can be used to send lab results to patients from LIS systems, bypassing the human effort of organizing, proofing, and sending. If patients are seeing specialists, this onboarding process can take as long as 21 minutes per appointment. By automating the entire process, this reduces the need for tedious, manual tasks that are prone to human error.
Is a Software Bot My New Co-Worker?
A bot for every person may conjure up an image of your favorite Star Wars droid, but in reality we are referencing a software robot. The key to workforce success is creating an environment where humans and machine bots can work together in harmony. It’s not about serving a cup of coffee or turning the lights on, but rather completing mind-numbing tasks that a digital workforce gobbles up like Pac-Man, allowing people to get more meaningful work done.
Benefits include:
- Improved accuracy and compliance
- 24/7/365 digital workforce
- Data migrations from EHR, portal, API, or application
- Invoice, forms, and patient processing
In Conclusion
Automation is not the panacea for everything in Health IT, but it is a key resource. Now more than ever, we need to double down on our efforts to support the people and services in healthcare. It allows us to elevate people from “human doings,” burdened by mind-numbing, repetitive tasks, to human beings, empowered by technology advancements. If we can help to expedite order entries, route lab results, gather data from disparate sources, or put together actionable reports, please give us a call. Our mission is to simplify tasks, so you can work smarter, not harder. Most solutions are implemented in < 30 days, with automated lab reporting live in < 14 days.
Why Boston Software Systems?
Boston Software Systems has been ensuring RPA projects remain on track since 1985. Bridge the gaps with a proven business model that maximizes effectiveness and reduces manual, tedious tasks across the healthcare ecosystem.
For more information on how we can help your organization navigate the healthcare automation landscape, please reach out. We’d love to share our success stories with you. Contact us at 866-653-5105 or visit us at www.bostonsoftwaresystems.com.