It’s not just the pandemic. Looking ahead, demographic shifts such as an increasing population only magnify these issues, pressing for innovative solutions.

So how do we fix this?

To address these pain points, healthcare providers are beginning to adopt digital transformation. Robotic process automation (RPA) is emerging as a promising technology that can directly tackle these issues and accelerate business digital transformation. From enhancing resource allocation to simplifying daily activities, RPA can transform the current healthcare situation. In this explainer, we’ll discuss how the global adoption of RPA can revolutionize healthcare for better medical care. Let’s dive in!

RPA Statistics in Healthcare

Healthcare is experiencing major difficulties in different areas, putting considerable stress on public and private hospitals.

The industry is highly regulated, resulting in several inefficiencies. For instance, a large majority (88%) of patient appointments and bookings are still handled manually, causing delays of up to 76 days from referral to appointment.

On top of that, hospital administration and insurance processes add another layer of complexity. This bureaucratic back-and-forth with documents and invoices can really frustrate patients trying to navigate it all.

Did you know the healthcare industry spends a mind-blowing $2 billion every year just on poorly handled manual tasks related to managing provider data? And insurance companies aren’t far behind, dishing out millions to fix provider data quality errors.

This is why the rise of robotic process automation (RPA) is significantly impacting healthcare. RPA is similar to having a virtual assistant that manages repetitive tasks, ensuring data accuracy and timely patient care. Healthcare tech adoption of new, emerging technologies like RPA enables hospital networks and healthcare providers to drive efficiency, improve operations, cut costs, and evolve faster.

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What Are the Benefits of Integrating RPA in Healthcare

In the healthcare sector, RPA tools and medical software can effectively ease numerous challenges caused by growing workloads, diminishing workforce, and escalating costs.

Here are some of the most compelling advantages of Robotic Process Automation in healthcare.

Lower Administrative Costs

Contrary to popular belief, integrating technology doesn’t have to break the bank. Medical RPA solutions reduce operational costs and labor expenses by 60% to 80%. By eliminating the need for manual intervention, they also reduce staffing requirements by 20% to 60%.

Enhanced Data Security

RPA bots minimize data exposure and vulnerability by handling sensitive information without human intervention, ensuring that data center security protocols are strictly adhered to and reducing the risk of breaches.

Faster Processes

RPA can perform mundane tasks much faster than humans, creating a virtual workforce that operates around the clock.

Improved Data Accuracy

RPA solutions reduce errors associated with manual data entry and ensure consistent data across healthcare organizational systems.

Increased Productivity

By implementing automated processes for manual tasks, employees can redirect their attention to addressing intricate issues that require human judgment.

Enhanced Compliance

RPA bots make it easier to track and audit, reducing headaches when it comes to following statutory regulations.

Happier Patients

With reduced administrative burdens, healthcare workers can focus more on patients and give them the attention they deserve.

Prevention of Burnout

By handling repetitive tasks, RPA helps prevent employee burnout and boosts job satisfaction among healthcare professionals.

Enhanced Patient Outcomes

RPA ensures data accuracy, enabling physicians to make informed decisions and deliver optimal treatments more efficiently, ultimately improving patient health outcomes.

Improved Compatibility Between Systems

Healthcare systems can seamlessly share information across different platforms, including EMRs (Electronic Medical Records) and EHRs (Electronic Health Records). This improves access to health information and patient care management.

Applications of RPA in the Healthcare Sector

Let’s examine some of the typical RPA applications used in healthcare to understand why the healthcare sector should adopt intelligent automation.

Streamlined Entry and Synchronization of Patient Data

Ensuring a seamless appointment and follow-up involves numerous complex tasks, such as:

• Collecting basic patient information
• Gathering medical history
• Verifying valid insurance details
• Aligning patient appointments with the doctor’s schedule
• Notifying the patient or doctor of any changes

These tasks are manually performed due to a non-centralized data collection system, resulting in numerous repetitive actions. However, with Robotic Process Automation (RPA), these duties can be carried out swiftly and precisely. This not only lowers operation costs but also improves effectiveness.

ALSO READ: Enhancing Efficiency in Business Processes with Data Automation

Effective Management of Healthcare Supply Chains

Managing the supply chain in healthcare is a big deal—it’s complex and expensive.

RPA offers a strategic advantage by streamlining critical administrative functions. From managing purchase orders to mitigating procurement risks, RPA optimizes every step. It simplifies order setup and entry, ensures meticulous inventory management, and fine-tunes supply and demand-side planning.

This saves time and money and reduces mistakes, making everything run more smoothly.

Meeting Regulatory Standards and Security in Healthcare

In the healthcare sector, it’s really important to safeguard patient data and ensure that regulations like HIPAA run them. However, manual processes or working across different applications can make this tedious. With Robotic Process Automation (RPA), healthcare providers can ensure they’re on track.

RPA helps healthcare providers by tracking and documenting each step of their processes in organized log files, meeting audit requirements. It also ensures patient privacy through secure features like role-based access, so only authorized personnel can access patient data.

Automation can even assist patients in requesting their health data without the need for manual intervention. In the US, the 21st Century Cures Act guarantees timely access to digital health information.

ALSO READ: Cloud Security: Strategies for Protecting Critical Digital Assets

Track and Manage Valuable Hospital Resources

Hospitals sometimes struggle with outdated legacy systems, which can make it hard to keep track of valuable equipment. For instance, “As per HPE studies, nurses end up spending nearly about 6,000 hours each month searching for lost equipment, taking away from their important duties.” This not only wastes time but can also impact patient care, causing longer wait times and delays in treatment.

Using RPA, digital sensors, and cloud-based control panels can solve this problem. It makes it easier for staff to find equipment, maintain accurate inventory records, and monitor equipment conditions for prompt replacement of faulty items.

This contributes to the efficient operation of hospitals and guarantees that patients receive the necessary care without any avoidable delays.

Optimizing Staffing Solutions

Ensuring hospitals have the right number of staff each day is crucial to prevent burnout and ensure quality care within budget constraints.

RPA can assist hospital administrators in this balancing act. It helps them organize schedules, track attendance, and keep an eye on employee performance across various systems. Additionally, bots can ensure that all information regarding staff, such as performance, salary, and work hours, is accurately maintained and synchronized.

ALSO READ: 8 Types of Operating Costs Businesses Should Manage

Revolutionizing Clinical Trials

Creating a new medication can usually cost as much as $2 billion, and its effectiveness is not guaranteed. Clinical trials are essential in drug development and contribute significantly to the high expenses involved in this procedure.

This is where RPA steps in to offer much-needed efficiency and cost savings.

RPA can automate tasks like updating the Trial Master File (TMF), ensuring accurate and flawless records without human error. Additionally, access to extensive datasets can assist in patient matching, helping ensure diverse and representative trial populations.

Moreover, ML-powered bots can streamline administrative tasks and regulatory submissions, leading to faster, more precise, and more affordable clinical trials.

Conclusion

Integrating RPA into healthcare workflows is just the beginning. The sooner healthcare companies start using this new technology, the better they can cut costs and improve their finances. And it’s not just about money—patients will benefit, too. As technology keeps advancing, there are even more possibilities ahead. From how we diagnose and treat patients to how we interact with them and handle paperwork, digitalization is set to transform every part of healthcare.

About the Author:
This article was created in collaboration with Joy D’Cruz – a content marketing specialist currently working with SaSHunt. Joy has a keen interest in researching topics related to B2B and SaaS. During weekends, he enjoys spending time watching YouTube.

The post How Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is Revolutionizing Healthcare Processes appeared first on Comidor Low-code Automation Platform.

The post 5 Business Processes You Can Automate with RPA appeared first on Comidor Low-code Automation Platform.

Comidor platform offers you the ability to build your own Low-Code apps through App Builder, without writing any lines of code. Creating simple or more complicated apps is easier than ever, even for non-developer users. With Comidor Robotic Process Automation (RPA) elements in your apps, you can automate and manage repetitive tasks, automatically produce documents and retrieve or exchange data with other systems.

In this article, we will give two RPA application cases of real business problems where we have included RPA elements in the solution.

Case 1. Sales Order Process

Business Problem

Currently, when the sales department receives a customer order, they need to initiate a new Sales Order Request process. After the order acceptance by the Sales Manager, the request is sent to the production team where the team members should perform a series of tasks. In particular, the production team either produces or picks the goods, depending on inventory stock. Then, the procurement team should create an order in the ERP system.

The above, result in a time-consuming process that involves the collaboration of different departments and systems, where errors and delays in the order delivery are possible.

The solution

The Comidor solution is a Low-Code application that monitors all Sales Order processes in one place along with a workflow that orchestrates all process steps.

In the workflow we have included:

• Task allocation to the responsible users and groups
• Automated emails
• User forms & fields for data input and display
• Gateways and conditions for path determination
• RPA agent and RPA caller that replicate human actions and send data to the ERP system

The Sales Order process steps in detail are:

1. The Sales Agent places the order in Comidor and adds details such as the account name, quantity of the order, and material code

2. The Sales Manager approves or rejects the order. If the order is rejected, an automated email is sent to inform the customer

3. If the order is approved, inventory stock check is performed by the Production department:

• In the event of no stock availability, a sub-process is triggered and assigned to the Production department. Only when the production process is completed, the process moves to place the order in the ERP system
• If there is stock availability, the process goes directly to step 4

4. The RPA agent places the order in a 3rd party system. An RPA bot transfers information from Comidor to the ERP system. The steps that the bot executes are the following:

• The bot opens the browser and logs into the ERP system
• The bot clicks on the New Sales Order tile
• The bot inserts all the data that was provided in the previous tasks
• Finally, the bot submits the order

5. After the RPA’s execution, an automated email is sent to inform the customer

6. The sales order process is completed following the delivery of the order by Shipment. The Shipment department is assigned with the task to deliver the order on the date specified in the previous tasks

As a result, the Sales Order application provides those teams with the required information to carry out their tasks without having to log in to different systems and handling the same data over and over again. Errors can be avoided, the whole process is completed in less time and employees can focus mostly on providing a great customer experience rather than task execution.

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Case 2. Purchase Order Process

Business Problem

The Purchase Order process starts when there is a need to purchase products/services from a vendor. A purchase order document is the official order confirmation and it is created manually. The respective document needs to be approved by 3 or 4 reviewers depending on the amount of the order and after the final confirmation, it will be sent from the purchaser to the vendor. 

The business need in this scenario, was to create an automated multi-level approval workflow where all different departments could collaborate smoothly, all stages of the process could be captured, and this way provide real-time reporting with vital insights for every purchase order.

The solution

For this business problem, the Comidor solution is a Low-Code application to monitor all purchase orders in one place. Every employee in the company has access to the initiation of the process. The Low-Code application also includes a workflow that orchestrates all process steps.

In the workflow we have included:

• Task allocation to the responsible users and groups
• User forms & fields for data input and display
• Scripts to fetch vendor details from another table and capture approval dates
• Gateways and conditions for path determination
• RPA Excel Processor to parse a big Excel file or part of it, and capture values of certain cells into user fields or a whole area and depict it in an Excel type user field
• RPA Document creator to produce the purchase order document by combining a file template format and fields from the workflow
• An automated email with the attachment of the purchase order document

The Purchase Order process steps in detail are:

1. Purchase Order Creation

• The creator selects the vendor for which the order is placed as well as the type of request. The creator can either add the order details manually or upload an Excel file containing all the order details.
• The system automatically populates vendor details.
  • In the case of file uploading, the details are extracted automatically with the Excel Processor and are inserted into user fields inside the workflow.
  • In case of manual submission, the creator adds products or services required (code, product name, quantity, unit price, any discount or other costs included, instructions, and any other comments)
• Then, the creator selects if the supplier is Retail or Wholesale and adds shipping details (delivery date, shipping method, shipping terms, etc)

2. Approval Flow

The purchase orders are reviewed by the following approvers:

• Creator’s Manager
• Retail/Wholesale Supplier Manager (based on the selection in the previous step) 
• Finance Manager (only for orders with a total amount greater than £10,000)
• Head of Supply

In case of rejection at any of the above approval steps, the creator is notified and can then amend or cancel the PO process

3. Purchase order sent to the vendor
After the approval, the previously manual purchase order document creation is replaced by the Document Creator, a powerful RPA component that automates the document generation. The purchase order document is produced, saved within the main form of the process, and automatically sent via e-mail to the vendor as an attachment.

We have achieved:

• Real-time monitoring and reporting of all purchase orders
• Complex Excel files parsing and data capturing 
• Automated document creation and sending to external parties via email
• Elimination of typography errors and valuable time saving
• Increased productivity since manual steps have been removed

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Find more information about RPA and Workflow elements that you can include in your workflows.

The post RPA Application Cases appeared first on Comidor Low-code Automation Platform.

Walmart, Deutsche Bank, AT&T. and Ernst & Young are among the many leading, worldwide enterprises that have adopted RPA.

Companies are turning to the Robotic Process Automation emerging technology because:
1. many of them still rely on legacy systems
2. a large number of knowledge workers still work with many applications at the same time,  including some legacy systems.

According to Gartner, Robotic Process Automation is the fastest-growing type of software. They estimate that RPA grew 63% in 2018 to $846 million. 

What is  Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?

According to Wikipedia, Robotic process automation (or RPA) is an emerging form of business process automation technology based on metaphorical software robots (bots) or artificial intelligence (AI) workers. In essence, RPA  is a useful tool that uses screen scraping and other technologies to create specialized agents that can automate repetitive tasks. This technology allows anyone today to set a computer as an agent that emulates and integrates the actions of a human, interacting within a platform to perform a variety of repetitive tasks.

What are the benefits of Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?

• Increased productivity
  Employees are the first to understand the benefits of RPA as it relieves them from non-value-added activities

• Cost Saving
  RPA automates business processes, reducing costs, and increasing throughput.

• Better Accuracy
  Since humans develop the RPA agents, they make zero mistakes.

• Total Control
  Once the agents are programmed everything they do is monitored.

• Better Customer Satisfaction
  Less human errors and increased speed of customer-facing processes can lead to an improvement in customer satisfaction.

RPA Common Applications

• Customer service: RPA can help organizations offer better customer service by automating contact center tasks, including the upload of scanned documents, getting detailed data, and resolving simple but customer issues.
• Accounting: Organizations can use RPA for general accounting, creating and delivering invoices instantly without human intervention.
• Financial services: Companies in the financial services industry can use RPA for foreign exchange payments, automating, or extracting data from bank statements.
• Healthcare: Hospitals and Pharmaceutical companies can use RPA for keeping and managing patient records, 
• Human resources: HR  departments can automate their onboarding and offboarding processes with RPA. Moreover, they can automate the payroll function too.
• Supply chain management: RPA can be used for procurement, automating orders, payment processes, and checking low-stock levels.

Tips for powerful robotic process automation (RPA):

1. Set expectations:
Before you decide to choose your RPA, identify your business needs and which business processes are repetitive and really need to be automated. You can achieve a successful outcome by setting realistic expectations and managing them well. 

2. Consider the employees’ adoption:
The adoption of a new technology carries a great deal of risk, so your RPA project can sink if your workers are resistant to adoption. Training events can be an effective way to train your employees on Robotic Process  Automation (RPA).

3. Choose the right software based on your needs.
Therefore, to choose an RPA software vendor, you need to understand your business needs and every  RPA vendors’ functionality. Comidor BPM combined with Robotic Process Automation is the perfect tool to orchestrate and automate end-to-end business processes, merging human and system activities into a single process. 

What is the future of RPA?

Εnterprises have already started to boost their automation projects by combining RPA with other cutting-edge technologies such as Machine Learning, OCR, and Natural Language Processing (NLP), automating demanding tasks that in the past required execution by a human. According to a Global Market Insights Inc. report, the RPA market is expected to reach $5 billion by 2024. Also, KeyBanc Capital Markets expect that the global RPA market will emerge as a $100 billion opportunity in 10 years.

Read our handy RPA guide that demonstrates how businesses can benefit from RPA and do automation right.

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