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RPA in Healthcare – Use Cases

RPA in Healthcare – Use Cases

A recent study found out that companies considered Robotic Process Operations because of improved productivity, as well as enhanced customer experience. Organizations in diverse sectors classified RPA as a progressive leap into the world of Artificial Intelligence.

The technology employs software robots, virtual workers, and mimics humans to implement tasks. It can also process complex information at top-notch speed. We explained all these benefits in our article, “What Are The Key Benefits of RPA(Robotic Process Automation).”

With the ascend of disruptive innovations, increasing cost as a result of conventional applications, and a shift towards patient-centric solutions; the healthcare industry is left with no option but to embrace RPA. The technology is presently leading the forefront of delivering quality health care solutions effectively, efficiently, and at an affordable rate.

It is not a gainsaying to assert that the healthcare framework is data-driven, with a massive amount of data being obtained manually via forms, conflicting internal IT frameworks, as well as a different collection of databases and documents.

Healthcare practitioners are searching for more ways to save time, cost, and generate increased efficiencies in operations. This is where RPA comes in.

Make Your Robots – Try RPA Tools

Here are five use cases of RPA in healthcare:

Simplify The Scheduling Of Patient’s Appointment.
Fast Track Account Settlements
Streamline claims management
Execute discharge instructions
Record audit processes

1. Simplify The Scheduling Of Patient’s Appointment

Several patients book an appointment online. The healthcare sector spends so much time extracting data, processing data, as well as checking insurance information during the process of registration. It has always been a tedious process scheduling appointments based on the available information. Not only that, but the appointments are also required to properly fit into the schedules of medical professionals and their availability.

For example, if a neurologist needs to diagnose a patient, the appointment must align with the calendar of the neurologist and his or her availability in the hospital. In a situation where the doctor will be unable to meet up with the appointment, the hospital needs to communicate with the patient. Thus, appointment scheduling will remain an arduous task.

RPA implementation in healthcare will resolve all these issues that bother on appointment scheduling. The RPA bots schedule patients’ appointments based on diagnosis, doctor availability, location, and other considerations. The RPA framework is capable of scanning the patient’s details to prepare a report for the referral planning officer who will book the appointment.

Also, the bots can inform patients of doctors’ availability concerning their appointments. In a situation where a cardiologist is unavoidably caught up in a time-consuming surgery, the RPA bots can notify patients of any adjustment in schedule.

In a nutshell, it can monitor the schedule of the cardiologist and alert patients of unavailability.

2. Fast Track Account Settlements

The healthcare establishments spend time on the monitoring, estimating, and the evaluation of bills incurred during the diagnosis, as well as treatment of patients. The manual procedure engaged for this activity is not only time-wasting, but it also gives room for multiple errors. Not only that, maintaining a database of prescriptions, several tests, wardroom costs, doctor fees, and other infrastructures are crucial for accurate estimation of each patient’s bill. Thus, the hospital staff needs to go through a complicated process to implement all these tasks.

RPA bots will estimate the bill amount factoring in the costs for tests, food, medicines, wardroom, as well as the doctor fees. The RPA software is capable of notifying patients of their expenses and receiving payments. The implementation of RPA in your hospital will enable you as a healthcare provider to minimize delays in payment, and the mistakes common with estimating the bill amount.

Thus, leveraging RPA can seamlessly expedite the account settlement process.

3. Streamline claims management

Statistics show that 91.2 percent or about 294.6 million US citizens have health coverage. It takes time to manage insurance claims as the process incorporates data input, data processing, evaluation, and handling appeals. The whole process, if operated manually or utilizing a traditional software, will produce error and inefficiency. Outdated claims processes will negatively impact your cash flow.

Not only that, but you can also deny about 30-40 percent of health insurance claims based on non-compliance to regulations. Therefore, proof-checking for compliance is another burden entirely.

Using RPA can streamline these processes. The RPA bots can hasten the processing of data relating to insurance claims while reducing errors. Thus, RPA bots prevent lags and track the entire procedure. The bots can also detect compliance-related cases and to avoid non-compliance.

Thus, adopting RPA can enhance efficiency in managing complicated insurance claims processes.

4. Execute discharge instructions

In most cases, patients are receiving prescriptions and medications, and are left with following post-discharge rules to assist them in managing some symptoms. It is always tricky following up on patients. For instance, a patient may experience an upset stomach after chemotherapy, coupled with a loss of appetite.

In this case, doctors may recommend some medications to handle these conditions and fix follow-up appointments. Health establishments hardly find it easy to follow up on patients to ensure compliance with those discharge instructions.

The exciting thing is RPA bots can fill in this gap by ensuring the accuracy of discharge instructions and sending reminders to patients regarding the picking- up of prescriptions. By introducing RPA in the healthcare industry, hospital management can inform patients of the next doctor’s appointments as well as medical tests. The bots can also send alerts to health care service providers in a situation where patients require further intervention concerning their conditions.

Healthcare service providers can optimize the patient’s experience, improve their service delivery, and minimize re-admission.

5. Record audit processes

The auditing processes incorporate different tasks to assess risk. There is a need to document each of these processes and generate reports. Concerned parties subsequently receive these reports to carry out verification and approval procedures.

This process is essential for diverse objectives, like quality-service delivery and patient safety. The generated reports are also useful for regulatory compliance. Thus, it becomes tedious to collate and assess multiple reports from several audits and liaise with stakeholders. Consequently, errors as a result of this can also lead to non-compliance.

RPA optimizes the audit process. The bots can record information and produce accurate reports during the auditing process. It can also share the reports automatically with stakeholders for verification and approval. Hospital management can utilize RPA software to track updates in those reports and follow-up with officers who are yet to approve.

Thus, RPA helps the healthcare industry to achieve accountability. It can identify who approves a report in a non-compliance case.

Conclusion

Medtech startups and enterprises are pushing cutting-edge ideas in the health industry as far as possible. We can undoubtedly classify RPA as the lighthouse of this undertaking. It takes both times to implement RPA in healthcare. However, the impacts will affect all.

It is time for healthcare to neglect the old way of doing things and embrace a technology that will enhance quality-service delivery and an optimized patient’s experience. You can also read our article, “Using RPA for Small Businesses.” We explained the feasibility, as well as RPA benefits for your business.