Medical facilities and healthcare providers can benefit from RPA employment. Source: Shutterstock

Medical facilities and healthcare providers can benefit from RPA employment. Source: Shutterstock

How RPA is automating administration jobs in healthcare

INDUSTRIES that heavily rely on administrative or back-office tasks to operate are constantly looking for ways to boost efficiency and productivity. Most of the time, the tasks require little thinking but repetitive and tedious clerical skills.

Particularly in healthcare, administration work often overwhelms employees to the point where it disrupts their time attending to patients.

The multitude of forms, registry, paperwork, and data that need to be collected and produced are relative to the increasing number of patients.

According to statistics, 43 percent of a physician’s time is spent on data entry and administrative tasks, reducing their contact time with patients. Statistics also show that 42 percent of doctors say electronic healthcare record tasks cause burnout.

Such tasks can easily be programmed to be automated with RPA or robotic process automation. The simplest form of technology – a programmable bot – is the key solution to an increasing worry in an inefficient healthcare operation.

Not only will it save time in documentation and data entry, but it will scalably enhance the entire process.

According to experts, 36 percent of current back-office tasks can be automated –  a highly promising statistic resulting in increased productivity, cost reduction, and improved healthcare services.

By employing RPA, healthcare employees will be able to drastically shift their focus to serving and attending patients, and the business profits from higher revenue in the long run.

Several of the major gains of RPA can be better understood in the context of specific tasks in the line of healthcare services.

# 1 | Increased productivity and risk reduction

Firstly, RPA is an impactful technology as 95 percent of businesses reported improved productivity in operations.

Specific document referencing, database search, and data entry of electronic records can be done quickly without having any manual processes involved.

RPA bots can be leveraged to activate when new data is registered. Then, it automatically updates the old dataset and sends alerts on the updates to other ends of the servers.

This, in turn, will create an efficient workflow system that reduces the risks of human errors – a costly variable in an efficient-first operation.

# 2 | Reduce operational costs

Not only that, cost can be saved when patients’ registry is automated from the beginning. From registration to the discharge, RPA can keep track of all the processes that are involved, including the billing details.

That way, staffs don’t have to manually track and calculate the charges, saving a lot of time – and reduce costly errors – for both parties.

In cases of insurance claims, RPA bots can be programmed to detect missing information logs and details, speeding up the entire process without manually going back and forth with insurance providers.

# 3 | Improved healthcare services

When an efficient workflow is achieved and the cost is manageably reduced, the overall ecosystem of healthcare services is improved.

Not only will patients have more contact time with doctors – now that their menial tasks are reduced – but they will also be able to plan their next appointment systematically without having to go to different departments for confirmation.

Staffs will naturally improve their communications skills now that data and information are more accessible and manageable.

Right now, RPA seems like an alternative to manual computation and documentation tasks, however, soon enough, it will be a necessity to ensure efficient workflow.

In other words, it is the stepping stone to a successful digital transformation, and improved healthcare operation.