Manual healthcare operations significantly impact efficiency and completely degrade the patient experience. As healthcare businesses operate in real-time, precision and turnaround times play a crucial role in achieving efficiency. Additionally, staff and patient experiences are pivotal in this process. Thus, conducting healthcare operations manually results in higher healthcare operational costs and extended turnaround times for providing healthcare to patients.
To address these challenges, RPA technology and automation tools emerge as vital solutions to deliver value-based care. RPA in healthcare can automate repetitive processes such as patient registration and data verification, allowing healthcare professionals ample time to utilise their skills in patient care.
The RPA in the healthcare market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 8.4%, reaching a valuation of $88.9 billion by the end of 2028 due to the increasing concern for affordable healthcare access.
This blog will delve into understanding the capabilities of automation in the healthcare segment and the benefits it brings to healthcare professionals.
Benefits of RPA in Healthcare
Implementing RPA in healthcare yields various advantages:
Improved and Personalised Patient Experience
RPA reduces staff involvement in repetitive tasks. This allows more time for direct patient interactions, both in-person and virtually. This facilitates more personalised and comprehensive care, streamlines patient onboarding, and provides better visibility into the entire patient record, enhancing decision-making.
Enhanced Accuracy
Incorporating RPA eradicates error-prone manual tasks. Because of which healthcare organisations can ensure greater accuracy and consistency across data collection, reporting, and various activities.
Increased Productivity
The automation of time-consuming and repetitive activities enables healthcare staff to redirect their time and focus toward more intricate business areas, thereby boosting overall productivity.
Cost Reduction
RPA technology automates labour, time, and resource-intensive activities, resulting in cost savings by performing tasks faster, more accurately, and with minimal human intervention.
Regulatory Compliance
RPA bots assist in data handling and reporting, optimising processes and ensuring adherence to compliance regulations related to sensitive patient information.
Enhanced Interoperability
RPA facilitates the exchange of data between previously isolated systems, such as electronic medical records (EMRs) and electronic health records (EHRs). This promotes seamless access to health data, leading to a higher level of patient care and satisfaction.
RPA Use Cases in Healthcare
Here are some common use cases for RPA in the healthcare industry:
Patient Eligibility & Registration
Automating patient registration with RPA bots speeds up the entire registration process, including setting up accounts, verifying histories, processing elements, and managing bills.
Insurance Eligibility Verification
Eliminate repetitive data entry for patient details from insurance cards for eligibility verification. Automate data extraction and processing to verify relevant insurance plan information and update it on the EHR portal.
Patient Scheduling
Train RPA bots to schedule patient appointments based on a predefined workflow considering doctor availability, location, and diagnosis. RPA bots also offer multi-channel support assistance.
Electronic Health Record
Instead of humans managing health records, RPA bots track records received from multiple resources every hour. They download PDFs and other medical details from various documents using OCR. Electronic Health Records (EHR) have the potential to revolutionise the healthcare industry.
Admission and Discharge Processes
Streamline admission and discharge processes using RPA bots for collecting data, identifying missing tests, flagging high-priority discharge cases, sending reminders, creating appointment alerts, and sending follow-up reminders.
Employee Onboarding- Offboarding
Accelerate the employee experience using RPA bots for recruitment, the hiring process, post-joining instructions, data verification, and asset maintenance. Easily update employee and learning management systems.
Test Report Management
Simplify the test request and report process for patients by automating report generation and updating test reports in EHR and CRM systems for easy access.
IT Service Ticket Automation
Route and resolve service tickets related to data access, test reports, claims, and others using RPA and AI in conjunction. Offer self-service assistance to customers for faster resolution and a seamless healthcare experience.
Healthcare Revenue Cycle
RPA and AI make data processing seamless across the organisation for eligibility verification, claims initiation, medical coding, claims reconciliation, and dispute management. Facilitate easy management of healthcare revenue and end-to-end workflow.
Caregiver Electronic Visit Verification
RPA can automate this process by ensuring accurate tracking of in-home patient care visits and collecting data from virtual devices and the information of services offered.
Physician Credential Verification
Automation and RPA tools free up human resources by verifying medical professionals' certifications, documents, and personal history from public sources autonomously.
Audit Report Management
Implement RPA to simplify the audit management process with real-time dashboard analytics, create a predefined design for audit questions with drag & drop, and capture data with a multichannel approach.
Asset Management
RPA bots can easily record newly enrolled devices, allocate/deallocate assets, manage asset returns, and generate emails or alerts at the time of upgrades or damaged assets.
Data Analytics
RPA and AI can integrate data collected across the organisation and offer real-time insights for better diagnosis, patient treatment, and further care plans.
Claims Processing
Automation and RPA tools assist in claim management by autonomously populating insurance fields, applying relevant regular fields, preparing claims documents, and storing data in centralised systems.
Healthcare Insurance Document Automation
Using RPA in healthcare insurance document automation streamlines insurance-related paperwork by extracting, validating, generating, and processing documents. It improves efficiency, reduces errors, and ensures compliance in healthcare insurance operations.
Real-life examples of RPA in healthcare
Max Healthcare
Max Healthcare, the largest hospital chain in North India, has streamlined claims administration across all units by implementing Robotic Process Automation (RPA). A UiPath-designed robot captures customer information from emails and PDF files, inputting the data into CSV format.
The bot logs into government healthcare scheme portals, capturing patient transaction records and verifying their statuses. Upon successful data validation, the robot automatically informs relevant departments via email. Consequently, the healthcare provider has saved 65-75% of the time spent on processing government healthcare schemes and reduced the turnaround time by 50%.
Challenges and Considerations
While the benefits of RPA in healthcare are evident, there are challenges and considerations that organisations must address:
Data Security and Privacy
Handling sensitive patient information requires robust security measures. Healthcare organisations must ensure that RPA implementations comply with data protection regulations and employ encryption, access controls, and other security measures.
Integration with Existing Systems
Seamless integration with existing IT systems is crucial for the success of RPA implementations. Compatibility issues and interoperability challenges must be carefully addressed to avoid disruptions in healthcare workflows.
Change Management
The introduction of RPA may necessitate changes in organisational culture and workflows. Adequate change management strategies should be in place to ensure a smooth transition and acceptance of automation technologies among staff.
Conclusion
As technology continues to evolve, the future of RPA in healthcare appears promising. The integration of RPA with other emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) holds the potential to further enhance the capabilities of automation in healthcare. Predictive analytics and intelligent decision-making algorithms can be integrated to optimise resource allocation, improve patient outcomes, and contribute to evidence-based medicine.
Additionally, the expansion of telemedicine and remote patient monitoring is likely to create new opportunities for RPA implementation. Bots can assist in managing virtual appointments, collecting and analysing remote patient data, and facilitating communication between healthcare providers and patients.
With RPA, your healthcare organisation will be able to focus on delivering more personalised care to patients while maintaining efficient business operation. You can contact BharatBotz to get implementation advice or start a project for your hospital.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Can RPA bots disrupt the current workflows at my clinic?
RPA bots seamlessly integrate into your current systems, enhancing your existing processes without compromising the overall workflow. Their non-invasive nature ensures a smooth integration, enabling them to effectively complement your clinic's operations.
What is RPA in healthcare?
RPA in healthcare refers to the use of software robots or "bots" to automate repetitive tasks such as appointment scheduling, claims processing, and data entry. These automation processes can help healthcare organisations improve productivity, reduce errors, and enhance patient care.
Why is RPA important in healthcare?
Implementing RPA in healthcare processes enables the automation of virtually any manual and repetitive task, thereby diminishing reliance on human intelligence. This, in turn, enhances operational efficiencies, reduces costs, minimises errors, empowers employees, and elevates both patient care and experiences.
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