Nine Ways Of Workflow Automation Is Changing The Healthcare Industry
- Sep 1, 2022
- By Rajeev Nar
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes, 43 seconds
Automation is everywhere, you see. From the fashion industry to the healthcare industry! Wondering how automation is changing the healthcare sector? Is the arrival of workflow automation in healthcare an alarming factor for the industry? Curious? Then keep reading!
Automation In Healthcare
The medical industry is growing speedily. Do you know that global workflow automation in healthcare will soon surpass the US $88.9 billion by 2028?
After the growth in the field of medicine and equipment, another advancement is automation in the healthcare industry. To increase effectiveness, more and more strategies and systems are being developed.
But, workflow automation doesn’t mark the end of the needs of healthcare providers. The thing is, it made the lives of the doctors, physicians and hospital staff convenient. They can now focus on the most important work. And delegate the other unimportant work to the robots.
Nine Ways Of Workflow Automation Is Changing The Healthcare Industry
Can’t hold your horses? Okay, okay! Here are the ways by which eCommerce automation is changing the healthcare industry.
1. Simplification Of Patient’s Appointment
Gone are the days when appointments were made only by appearing in person. Now, you can book an appointment online in a matter of seconds. That too, without waiting for long hours standing in a queue.
Earlier, the hospital staff had to gather patient information. Then, confirm the availability of doctors to the patient in the absence of the correct information. It was the responsibility of the staff to inform them about it in advance.
But you know what? Workflow Automation has made it all easy! It reduced all the tough processes that staff had to go through. Now, bots can automate data collection and processing. This way, patient scheduling happens in the right way as per the availability of a doctor.
With automation in the appointment process, hospital staff can focus on other important areas. They can focus on offering exceptional services and other vital tasks.
2. Online Patient Portal
Patient portals allow patients to get full information about their health. Also, they can use the portal to cancel or schedule an appointment. Besides, they can also use it to read health-related informative articles as well.
Babylon Health, which is UK based, has started its first online consultation service. So that people can keep track of their health. In fact, they are planning to open such facilities in China, the United States and other countries.
Not only this, but with the advent of patient portals, individuals can interact with physicians. Also, they can get quick responses to their queries related to health. These portals are open 24/7. So, you don’t need to worry about anything. You can access the portal at any hour of the day.
They can also know about their health status without contacting the doctor in person. This way, the patients would be more motivated to take care of themselves. As a result, more and more people will start being healthy.
3. Augmented Reality
Augmented reality has also changed the way the healthcare industry works. It makes use of visualisation and 3D modelling. To support the doctors in surgery, Diagnosis and various other procedures. AR applications generally work on phones and tablets. It makes them accessible to all healthcare professionals.
4. Account Settlement
Workflow automation also helps in settlement of accounts. It is quite obvious that healthcare organisations deal with a lot of patients at one time. This includes prescriptions, tests, appointment fees, medicines, room charges and so on.
It becomes very tedious and a tough job for them to manage all the accounts. Also managing them might result in errors as well.
The RPA ( Robotic Process Automation) software can assist healthcare providers in calculating bills. What this software does is collects the data from different departments. Then sends a notification to the respective patient. Automating account settlement not only helps in reducing payment delays. But also helps in eliminating errors.
5. Healthcare Sensors And Trackers
Who knew a Smartwatch or a band could tell you about your blood sugar level or blood pressure? All thanks to automation in healthcare! Consumers can now be more aware of their health by keeping track.
There is nothing these devices cannot do. These devices and sensors keep track of the health of an individual. This way, they don’t have to rush to the hospitals in case of an emergency.
For instance, there is a thing called pill bottles. By using these bottles, a patient never misses his/her dose of tablets. They remind the patient about their dosage and whether they have taken it or not.
All these advances in the medical field will help patients in all possible ways. Also these devices/ sensors also help the patient in recovering. And they also give vital data to the doctors about the condition of patients. It helps doctors in making better decisions.
6. Less Operating Costs
Automation in healthcare also helps in reducing operating costs. Many healthcare executives are planning to bring workflow automation to cut costs.
There are many ways by which workflow automation can assist healthcare providers. This includes a reduction in operating costs and medical errors. Also, the efficiency of the healthcare sector. When the efficiency increases, the doctors, staff and nurses don’t have to overwork. They are free to work only during their normal hours. This also benefits them with less stress and more productivity.
When the doctors are stress-free, they tend to make less and even no mistakes at the time of diagnosis or surgery. Otherwise, these errors can prove to be very expensive for them.
So, with less payout for medical mistakes and less overtime, they can save a lot of money.
7. Sturdy and Superior Equipment
The manual machines are vulnerable to damage. This can prove to be very inconvenient for healthcare providers. Moreover, lab technicians can damage medical tools like test tubes and pipettes. Worse than that, they can even contaminate the samples of patients.
But with the help of automated processes, all these issues can be solved. There is no such fear of damaging the equipment or contaminating the patient samples. Also, by making use of automated processes, a lot of time is saved as they don’t have to visit the hospital every time.
8. Faster Suicide Prevention
Not only in physical health, but workflow automation is also helping mental health. Along with mental health diagnosis, automation is also helping in suicide prevention.
The main task of AI in suicide prevention is that it can sort out social media posts, emails and text messages. It then searches the key phrases that harm an individual’s mental health. It works on the same algorithm as Facebook, Instagram and Google to show advertisements to your feed.
Finally, the researchers can pair up their tools with phone applications. This offers a great solution to prevent self-harm and suicidal tendencies. They provide the right help at the moment in time.
9. AI Benefits in Diagnosis
Healthcare automation helps automate repetitive tasks such as CT scans, X-Rays, and more. Now, the hospitals don’t have to rely upon the nurses and staff to do so. Robots can perform them. That is too faster and in a more accurate way.
Radiology and cardiology are the two areas where data analysis is time-consuming. But now, radiologists and cardiologists can look after the most complicated cases.
Do you know about Deepmind/ Google Health? Does it use workflow automation to detect several types of cancer? Isn’t it great?
Conclusion
Let’s call it a wrap. As you can see, workflow automation in healthcare has become very common in the industry. Almost all tasks in the healthcare sector can be set on autopilot.
All in all, workflow automation is so beneficial for healthcare providers. It leads to reduced cost, higher patient satisfaction and more efficiency. The future of AI ( artificial intelligence) is indeed bright.
So, what do you say? Ready to integrate automation? Need any help? Make sure to ping us at RVS Media Limited.