Robotic Process Automation: How Smart Machines are Transforming Care Delivery

The U.S. healthcare industry is facing a severe shortage of skilled workers—the American Hospital Association estimates a nationwide shortage of 124,000 physicians by 2033 and will need to hire an additional 200,000 full-time nurses to meet rising care demands.

The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated these issues in recent years. Staff burnout reached an all-time high in 2021 with over 63% of physicians reporting at least one instance compared with just 38.2% the previous year.

Unfortunately for many providers, things have not improved across 2022—healthcare ranks lowest of all industries when it comes to satisfaction with pay and overall work experience. Many healthcare service providers feel stressed out, overworked, and overburdened by their daily responsibilities.

While the adoption of telehealth and remote patient monitoring (RPM) solutions are just a couple of the innovations slowly helping to improve things, the implementation of robotic process automation (RPA) is the solution.

In the coming years, the most successful healthcare enterprises will be the ones that embrace digital transformation and leverage automation to make better use of data to deliver better medical outcomes for patients, working conditions for staff, and higher profit margins for investors.

RPA is the use of smart digital technologies to streamline core medical operations, administrative, HR, insurance, compliance, and other processes to increase speed, accuracy, and reliability. In this article, learn why the most innovative healthcare organizations are delivering custom RPA software solutions.

What is Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in Healthcare?

Robotic process automation (RPA) is the use of rules-based, pre-programmed software agents, devices, and platforms to perform core operational processes across the entire healthcare organizational footprint.

RPA solutions can be integrated into existing software solutions or could be designed as stand-alone programs. While the word “robotic” often brings to mind an application such as Boston Dynamics, dog-like mobile agility robot Spot, in most cases RPA in healthcare does not involve the use of robotics but instead refers to the automation of digital technologies.

The best part about RPA is that these solutions can run 24/7 around the clock automatically culling data from disparate unstructured sources and executing rules-based tasks in a highly structured and efficient manner. Robotic process automation allows your organization to get away from time-consuming manual processes and embrace operationalization and automation as a means of improving efficiency and productivity at scale.

RPA solutions come in all shapes and sizes but orchestrate activities across your technology stack to deliver more seamless and streamlined operations. Intelligent software agents process transactions reliably, without error, and without ever tiring from added complexity. Your RPA solutions will act as a linkage connecting internal and external IT systems, patient data, and the vital operations driving your organization’s success.

Here are some elements of RPA solutions in healthcare:

• Your Organization’s Technology Stack: Enterprise RPA is built using programming languages such as Python, .Net, and Java, as well as relational databases and front-end technologies like JavaScript. Develop custom RPA solutions by improving or adding new applications to your healthcare tech stack.
• Business Intelligence: Your RPA solution integrates disparate datasets from across different departments to deliver actionable insights to propel true business intelligence. Bring all the different pieces of information together with a custom system that fuels cross-functional collaboration in pursuit of excellence and shared goals.
• Holistic and Dynamic: RPA solutions in healthcare are multi-layered and feature recorders, extensions, bots, a robot control unit, and a development studio. Recorders allow bots to learn about human interactions with software. Extensions allow bots to extract and make data usable across different elements of the tech stack. Control units serve as an admin panel to control functions and your development studio is where all automation is managed from a single dashboard.

Examples of RPA Use Cases in Healthcare

RPA solutions can be customized to handle just about any task required by any department across the healthcare enterprise.

Here are a few examples of RPA use cases in clinical healthcare practice environments:

• Medical Claims Processing: U.S. patients and medical providers pay an estimated $496 billion in billing and insurance-related (BIR) costs on an annual basis. RPA cuts the time it takes to process medical claims from 85 seconds on average to under 3 seconds or less. Many systems are so fast they are able to dramatically improve the reliability and accuracy of insurance claims leading to 30% in costs and the opportunity to automate more than 70% of all activities connected to medical claims processing.
• Payment Processing: RPA in healthcare delivers the ability for claims management systems to be queried alongside medical coding systems to vastly expedite the accuracy and reliability of payment processing services. RPA and AI automate data aggregation optimizing payment processing.
• Appointment Scheduling: Way back in 2019, prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 88% of patients booked appointments using time-consuming manual processes. Missed appointments cost providers up to $150 million on an annual basis today automated appointment scheduling services are becoming the gold standard as patients and providers alike embrace telehealth.
• Compliance Documentation: As healthcare organizations have embraced digital transformation, they have found themselves in the crosshairs of criminal organizations. RPA offers clear benefits for improving cybersecurity and enhancing data management activities to safeguard personal health information (PHI). Role-based access controls can be programmed directly into RPA business logic to ensure compliance standards are upheld each and every time.

Robotic process automation is a game changer that offers measurable advantages for every department and practice specialty across the healthcare industry. Improving speed, reliability, and accuracy matched with increases in worker retention metrics and patient satisfaction make RPA investment such a potent form of business transformation.

Benefits of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to
Transform Care Delivery

Robotic process automation is the answer for healthcare enterprises looking to improve patient outcomes, manage costs, deliver better working conditions for staff, and complete enterprise-wide digital transformation. In many cases, the return on investment (ROI) from developing custom RPA solutions is so significant it frees up vital organizational resources for other mission-critical expenditures.

Here are some of the benefits RPA early adopters enjoy:

• RPA increases operational efficiency without increasing labor costs which often account for more than 60% of hospital budget costs.
• By shifting monotonous activities to robot agents, human workers can focus on more beneficial tasks.
• RPA solutions are low-cost and do not require specialized IT knowledge to deliver robust automation.
• Robotic process automation tools increase knowledge sharing and cross-functional collaboration.

Ready to Get Started?

Perfect! Asahi Technologies delivers industry-leading robotic process automation (RPA) solutions for healthcare enterprises. Get in touch today to learn more about our custom software solutions.

Our RPA implementation services help you to understand your core business needs today and deliver intelligent automation solutions to secure your competitive advantage down the line. Build a forward-looking RPA roadmap to implement your technology stack, automate key operational processes, and integrate data across disparate platforms and software services.

No matter where your organization is in your RPA journey—from assessing current needs to implementing your long-term vision—our automation consulting services offer the foundation your team needs to propel enterprise-wide digital transformation.

Let’s Talk

FAQ

• What is Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in Healthcare?

Robotic process automation (RPA) is the use of rules-based, pre-programmed software agents, devices, and platforms to perform core operational processes across the entire healthcare organizational footprint.

RPA solutions can be integrated into existing software solutions or could be designed as stand-alone programs. While the word “robotic” often brings to mind an application such as Boston Dynamics, dog-like mobile agility robot Spot, in most cases RPA in healthcare does not involve the use of robotics but instead refers to the automation of digital technologies.

The best part about RPA is that these solutions can run 24/7 around the clock automatically culling data from disparate unstructured sources and executing rules-based tasks in a highly structured and efficient manner. Robotic process automation allows your organization to get away from time-consuming manual processes and embrace operationalization and automation as a means of improving efficiency and productivity at scale.

RPA solutions come in all shapes and sizes but orchestrate activities across your technology stack to deliver more seamless and streamlined operations. Intelligent software agents process transactions reliably, without error, and without ever tiring from added complexity. Your RPA solutions will act as a linkage connecting internal and external IT systems, patient data, and the vital operations driving your organization’s success.

• What are some benefits of RPA for healthcare?

Robotic process automation is the answer for healthcare enterprises looking to improve patient outcomes, manage costs, deliver better working conditions for staff, and complete enterprise-wide digital transformation. In many cases, the return on investment (ROI) from developing custom RPA solutions is so significant it frees up vital organizational resources for other mission-critical expenditures.
Here are some of the benefits RPA early adopters enjoy:

• RPA increases operational efficiency without increasing labor costs which often account for more than 60% of hospital budget costs.
• By shifting monotonous activities to robot agents, human workers can focus on more beneficial tasks.
• RPA solutions are low-cost and do not require specialized IT knowledge to deliver robust automation.
• Robotic process automation tools increase knowledge sharing and cross-functional collaboration between departments.
• RPA allows healthcare organizations to perform 60% of daily tasks faster while delivering 80% cost savings.
• Where can healthcare organizations use RPA?

Your Organization’s Technology Stack: Enterprise RPA is built using programming languages such as Python, .Net, and Java, as well as relational databases and front-end technologies like JavaScript. Develop custom RPA solutions by improving or adding new applications to your healthcare tech stack.

Business Intelligence: Your RPA solution integrates disparate datasets from across different departments to deliver actionable insights to propel true business intelligence. Bring all the different pieces of information together with a custom system that fuels cross-functional collaboration in pursuit of excellence and shared goals.

Holistic and Dynamic: RPA solutions in healthcare are multi-layered and feature recorders, extensions, bots, a robot control unit, and a development studio. Recorders allow bots to learn about human interactions with software. Extensions allow bots to extract and make data usable across different elements of the tech stack. Control units serve as an admin panel to control functions and your development studio is where all automation is managed from a single dashboard.

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