Automating Healthcare Workflows Using IT Practices to Improve Efficiency

Healthcare organizations are not immune to the need to increase process efficiency, improve employee productivity, and reduce costs. According to McKinsey research in 2020, 33% of Healthcare provider tasks could be automated to reduce costs and improve affordability. Whether it’s the need to streamline operations to improve competitiveness or meet industry regulations such as the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements, workflow automation offers many benefits to Healthcare organizations.

One solution is the procurement and implementation of a process automation tool. However, Healthcare organizations with a fit-for-purpose IT service management (ITSM) tool already likely have the business-wide workflow automation capabilities they need. This blog explains why.

Healthcare organizations with a fit-for-purpose #ITSM tool already likely have the business-wide workflow automation capabilities they need. This @SysAid blog explains why. #ITSM #ServiceDesk Share on X

The need for workflow automation in Healthcare organizations

Organizations have automated manual operations since the 18th Century, when the Industrial Revolution took manufacturing operations from hand-production methods to machine use, i.e. automation. However, no matter the automation already in play, there’s still usually the opportunity to further automate practices, especially workflows – where there’s likely still the use of paper and personal productivity tools (such as email and spreadsheets) and manual operations that slow down processes and increase operational costs.

For a Healthcare organization, the improvement opportunity can cover various operational areas and processes. For example:

• Administrative processes – such as patient registration, patient scheduling, billing, claims processing, compliance monitoring, and people management
• Clinical processes – such as patient triage, diagnosis and treatment planning, medication management, surgical procedures, and patient discharge
• Support services processes – such as supply chain management, facilities management, laboratory services,  radiology services, and emergency services
• Data and information management processes – such as handling electronic health records (EHRs), reporting and analytics
• Quality assurance processes – such as patient feedback and outcome tracking (to evaluate the effectiveness of the treatments).

Check out how workflow #automation helps improve Healthcare organization operations. #ITSM #ServiceDesk #Healthcare Share on X

How workflow automation helps improve Healthcare organization operations

While much of the focus of workflow automation is often on improved process efficiency, the benefits are far wider. These benefits include:

• Increased speed of process execution and time savings – with automation replacing manual practices and the automation “working” at a far quicker pace than people; in particular, there are fewer delays caused by people’s non-availability
• Increased scalability – automated workflows can easily be scaled without proportionally increasing operating costs
• Less exposure to resource shortages – because automation reduces the reliance on people and their skills
• Reduced operational costs – because not only is automation quicker and more “available,” it’s also cheaper than employing human labor
• Reduced human errors – human errors, even if small mistakes, can be expensive in terms of their consequences
• Greater adaptability – it’s easier to change automation-based activities than the people-based equivalents where the existing practices are engrained
• Better consistency – automation eliminates the variability associated with human intervention, leading to more consistent outcomes
• Improved data analytics and improvement – automated processes provide a wealth of data that can help in performance assessment and improvement efforts
• Improved service and Healthcare experiences – the combination of the above benefits contributes to better operations and outcomes for patients and Healthcare staff.

Workflow automation is a form of digital transformation

While the prominence of digital transformation in corporate conversations and strategies has waned since its global pandemic peak, it was always intended to be an ongoing capability – with continued technology and data exploitation in:

• Introducing new or enhanced products and services
• Improving customer engagement mechanisms
• Optimizing and automating business operations.

The latter of these digital transformation areas covers workflow automation, with what the IT industry calls “enterprise service management,” a ready-made solution for this form of digital transformation.

Using IT practices and capabilities as a platform for business-wide workflow automation

As mentioned earlier, focused process automation solutions are available, but this requires further time and money investment in software purchase and implementation, administrative people and skills, user training, patching and upgrades, and potentially other areas. In contrast, enterprise service management – “the use of ITSM principles and capabilities in other business areas to improve their operational performance, services, experiences, and outcomes” – is a ready-made solution for your Healthcare organization’s workflow automation needs.

Adopting IT practices might seem like an unusual step by a non-IT line of business, but it’s now a well-proven approach to improving business function operations and outcomes, with 2022 research finding that “70% of organizations had either already started with enterprise service management initiatives, or planned to do so.”

As detailed earlier, many possible Healthcare processes could be improved through workflow automation capabilities in ITSM tools that include routing, approvals, notifications, alerts, service-level monitoring (if appropriate), and escalations to increase operational efficiency and effectiveness. 

This @SysAid blog looks at the many possible #Healthcare processes that could be improved through workflow #automation capabilities in #ITSM tools including routing, approvals, notifications & escalations to increase operational efficiency… Share on X

But this isn’t everything an enterprise service management approach offers Healthcare organizations. They can also employ service management best practices as well as other ITSM tool functionality that include:

• Knowledge management capabilities – such that staff can do more than they could with only their own knowledge and experience.
• AI-enabled capabilities – such as intelligent work routing, intelligent search, chatbots (or virtual agents), and virtual assistants that assist Healthcare staff in their work.
• Reporting and analytics capabilities – which improve insight into performance and make improvement identification easier.

Healthcare improvement examples

The automation of Healthcare practices, across all areas, can pay significant dividends, for example:

• North York General Hospital freed up 6,600 hours for hospital staff to devote to patient care
• Spectrum Healthcare Partners used SysAid’s built-in business intelligence and analytics to reduce operating costs and improve patient care
• Church Health’s average first response time for IT issues went from 3 hours to 16 minutes in one month, meaning clinical and administrative staff are better able to work

To learn more, please visit our dedicated Healthcare solution page.