By Boomi
Anybody who has ever received healthcare knows how much time is wasted at the doctor’s office. Between errors at the registration desk and repetitive information collection, medical appointments are often woefully inefficient. Patients can feel rushed and get the attention they expect from physicians. However, the blame doesn’t lie entirely with the healthcare workers – but also with outdated systems and processes. The critical challenge is orchestrating the complex web of tasks within healthcare.
A streamlined, automated workflow enhances accuracy and efficiency, alleviating the administrative burden on professionals while improving the overall management of the healthcare system. The result: better care outcomes and happier patients. This solution saves time and resources, and it also has the potential to redefine the standards of modern patient care.
What Is Healthcare Workflow Automation?
Healthcare workflow automation means using technologies such as integration, AI, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices to carry out the tasks traditionally performed by human healthcare professionals to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness of patient care.
For example, recent technology has revolutionized healthcare communication by enabling the widespread adoption of electronic health records. Additionally, advances in telemedicine and cutting-edge diagnostic tools like AI-powered imaging and genomics have created a more interconnected, patient-centric healthcare ecosystem. These technological advancements have accelerated the pace of medical research and innovation. They have also improved accessibility, efficiency, and personalized treatment options for individuals across the globe.
8 Ways Healthcare Workflow Automation Boosts Efficiency
There are numerous benefits of implementing healthcare workflow automation. Here are the top advantages that leveraging this technology can bring to your healthcare organization:
- Increases Performance. Routine tasks are completed quickly and accurately, boosting overall workflow productivity.
- Reduces Errors. Fewer manual errors arise, which ensures accuracy in critical healthcare processes.
- Improves Patient Care. Automation enables more informed and coordinated treatment strategies, leading to better patient care.
- Accelerates Information Flow. Quicker access to patient information improves decision-making during patient interactions, reduces frustration, and enhances the overall patient experience.
- Simplifies Scheduling. Optimized appointment scheduling improves clinic efficiency while keeping patients and staff happy with appointment times.
- Increases Security. Secure and compliant data handling protects patient confidentiality and ensures regulatory adherence.
- Lowers Costs. Automation reduces operational expenses, contributing to cost savings and improved financial health for healthcare organizations.
- Adapts to Change. Healthcare technology makes it easier to keep up with evolving regulations and technological advancements, improving your clinic’s adaptability and compliance.
What Technology Makes Healthcare Workflow Automation Possible?
Technology trends are driving digital transformation in healthcare. Here are some of the latest technologies that facilitate healthcare workflow automation.
- Electronic Health Records (EHR) Systems: EHR systems digitize patient health information. They enable secure storage, easy retrieval, and seamless sharing of medical records.
- Robotic Process Automation (RPA): RPA automates repetitive and rule-based tasks within healthcare processes. This increases operational productivity by minimizing errors and reducing manual workloads.
- Appointment Scheduling Software: This software optimizes the booking and management of patient appointments. It reduces wait times and enhances the overall patient experience.
- EDI: EDI facilitates the electronic exchange of standardized healthcare information between different systems. A specific example is using Health Information Exchange (HIE) Platforms. HIE platforms are maintained by regional, state, or federal authorities, enabling the secure and interoperable exchange of patient health information. EDI and HIE support collaboration, reduce redundant tests and ensure that crucial medical data is readily available.
- IoT Devices and Wearables: These devices gather real-time health data from patients. They enable healthcare providers to monitor patient data continuously, allowing them to make highly personalized diagnoses.
6 Ways to Automate Workflows in Healthcare
Workflow automation helps your healthcare organization stay competitive and improve patient outcomes. Here are six areas where you can integrate healthcare workflow automation technologies for better success.
1. Streamlining Admission, Approvals, Billing, and Discharge
Admission, approvals, and discharge processes are often inefficient, prone to errors, and require extensive paperwork, resulting in long wait times and unhappy patients.
Instead, patients can pre-register at home using digital intake forms, self-service portals, or by interacting with AI chatbots, ensuring medical staff already have all the information they need before the patient arrives at reception. Doctors can confirm approvals in real time from their laptops or mobile devices during treatment. With patient registration, treatment, and approvals digitally documented, the discharge and billing process becomes swift, accurate, and straightforward.
2. Appointment Scheduling Automation
Optimize your clinic workflows by implementing a digital reservation system that streamlines your scheduling tasks. Include a booking feature on your website to allow clients to schedule their appointments easily. AI-powered chatbots can offer interactive assistance to direct clients to the appropriate specialists. Automated scheduling optimizes resource allocation and improves patients’ access to healthcare services.
3. Prescription and Medication Management
AI-based support tools can be integrated into your electronic medical record systems, hosted on a website, or accessed via an intranet to help health professionals choose the proper medication and dosage. They can also highlight the risk of drug interactions and adverse events. Automating medication management also improves pharmacy communication, making filling and refilling easier for your patients. AI-powered pharmacy dispensing systems can accurately label and package medications to minimize dispensing errors.
4. Claims Processing
AI can be integrated into your current system to streamline health insurance claims processing. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) automates tasks like data entry and eligibility checks. You can also use AI solutions for effective automated fraud detection.
5. Integrating Electronic Health Records (EHR)
Manual data entry into EHR is prone to errors, which increases the risk of incorrect diagnoses or inappropriate treatments. Natural Language Processing (NLP) automation can quickly and accurately process healthcare information, such as lab results, patient notes, and medical reports. The software converts the information into structured data that can be stored in EHR systems, enhancing patient care by reducing the likelihood of human error.
6. Staff Onboarding
Automate numerous onboarding administrative tasks by setting up an onboarding portal. That will allow new hires to submit and store their documents and eliminate repetitive form submissions. Automation markedly reduces paperwork and lets your new hires get to work more rapidly than traditional processes.
Boomi for Healthcare Workflow Automation
Effective healthcare workflow automation depends on adopting the right technology. You need a solution that improves experiences for both healthcare workers and patients and keeps patient data secure and in compliance with HIPAA and HITECH standards.
That solution is Boomi. The Boomi iPaaS has robust integration capabilities that enable healthcare organizations to automate workflows and simplify data exchange. By facilitating the interoperability of crucial applications like EHR and medical billing systems, Boomi ensures a cohesive and real-time flow of information. This reduces manual effort and eliminates errors, giving your staff more time to invest in what matters: helping patients.
Boomi’s ability to connect disparate, siloed systems and applications within the healthcare ecosystem means your organization’s data is more easily accessible — but only to the appropriate parties. Boomi supports secure and compliant data handling, fulfilling the stringent regulatory requirements of the healthcare industry. With its ability to swiftly adapt to evolving healthcare technologies, standards, and regulations, Boomi offers a competitive advantage to organizations seeking a more connected and efficient healthcare environment.
Read our Moderna case studies to find out how Boomi helped the biotechnology company achieve cost savings, automate complex transactions, and achieve rapid growth without increasing administrative staff.