Healthcare process optimization
For greater efficiency and productivity: With robotic process automation (RPA), digital assistants perform routine tasks automatically. This reduces the workload and makes employees happier.
A Robot assistent for every employee
When software robots do manual tasks, they work reliably, do not tire and make fewer errors than humans. This significantly accelerates healthcare process optimization.
Healthcare automation offers nursing and administrative staff in hospitals a modern solution to the challenges they face in their day-to-day work. Digital software robots imitate simple manual IT tasks. Prerequisite: The data must follow clear rules, be standardized and structured. Unstructured data or data that requires individual decisions is not suitable for digital assistants using RPA technology in healthcare.
Robotic assistants can be used, for example, to archive or transmit documents, create approvals, configure orders, screen CVs or write payrolls. Robotic process automation (RPA) enables a wide range of automation steps and applications. The process is always the same: an event occurs, e.g. an employee's digital sick note. A bot identifies it in the mailbox and forwards it to the right place—quickly, securely and in a targeted manner. Such routines do not require the time-consuming deployment of specialist staff. This way, digital process management in healthcare saves costs and time, which can then be used for patient care.
Digital process management in healthcare enhances staff skills in healthcare facilities and helps reduce errors by ensuring controlled processing of individual tasks. Automation takes the pressure of everyone who has a digital bot by their side. Especially in the healthcare sector, which faces intense financial pressure, this relief translates into increased competitiveness and agility. When professionals can refocus on their core tasks, they deliver higher quality and better performance.
On the road to digital transformation, stakeholders in the healthcare sector cannot avoid automation. Process automation is an important milestone in the ultimate goal of hyperautomation. Only in combination with other technologies such as AI and intelligent business process management (iBPM) does RPA unfold its full effect. Compared to more complex technologies such as AI and iBPM, RPA has the task of automating simple activities. The win in satisfaction as well as cost and time savings is enormous. Even if they seem simple, such tasks are made up of many individual work steps that need to be rationalized in a meaningful way.
Digital process management offers benefits to many stakeholders in healthcare facilities.
For management and administration, healthcare process automation ensures to process large volumes of data quickly. In hospital management, for example, this can relate to sustainability management (ESG) or legal requirements. In administration, automated tasks arise in customer service, for example. Besides, the processing time of digital mailboxes is noticeably shorter thanks to automation in healthcare. In the very first step, RPA in combination with OCR can help to digitalize analogue processes by generating structured data from paper documents.
Patients and relatives can already use RPA when making appointments. Robot assistants make appointments and send reminders to patients. Thanks to robot-assisted process automation, administrative and nursing staff have more time for advisory or nursing services. This leads to greater employee loyalty—an important argument in times of a shortage of skilled workers.
For all healthcare stakeholders, automation means to save valuable manpower and time. This transforms stressed or underchallenged employees, who previously struggled with simple manual tasks, into happy ambassadors of their healthcare organization. Healthcare process automation leads to lower staff turnover.
Our services—Your benefits
According to a US study, the market for robotic process automation (RPA) will grow by more than 26% worldwide by 2034. Healthcare automation will become even more important.
Take a look at the benefits:
As a hyperautomation tool, RPA technology aims to reduce simple, standardized and repetitive manual tasks through automation. Automation platforms that meet the highest standards of security and compliance are a fundamental prerequisite for accelerated processes and greater efficiency. With the infrastructure of Telekom Healthcare Solutions and our partner UiPath, the market leader for RPA software, stakeholders in healthcare can implement digitalization projects efficiently.
We make healthcare automation secure, because digitalization processes of our American partner UiPath are carried out via the Open Telekom Cloud. The UiPath platforms comply with security standards that are a matter of course in Europe, e.g. the GDPR. Another security aspect: The data centers are located in Europe and are maintained from Europe. This guarantees data protection and data sovereignty. As a result, customers enjoy a high degree of flexibility, security and transparency when it comes to process automation in healthcare.
With the Open Telekom Cloud, Telekom Healthcare Solutions provides a business platform from UiPath that can be easily integrated into existing hospital information systems. On this platform, entire processes can be digitalized end-to-end. On the customer side, this is done via the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software. All automation steps continue there. It can be operated by a Center of Excellence team, which guarantees easy handling and successful digital process management in healthcare.
What is Robotic Process Automation?
Robotic process automation (RPA) is one of the basic requirements for hyperautomation. It allows companies to use various technologies to raise their business and IT processes to a higher level of automation or to start using automation at all. In combination with other technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), business process management (BPM) and intelligent business process management (iBPM), RPA is key to hyperautomation. While BPM and iBPM are used for complex processes, RPA is used to automate simple tasks. They usually occur where people carry out repetitive, manual, rule-based tasks that involve large volumes and do not require decisions. These are often tasks in the IT secretariat of an administration or the care facility of a hospital.
Why is Robotic Process Automation relevant?
Digital process management is of great importance to many stakeholders in healthcare because it increases competitiveness. RPA is an effective optimization approach. This is particularly evident on the personnel and cost side. However, these are not the only areas that can benefit from robotic process automation.
RPA creates space for employees to focus on more value-adding activities, in line with the principle: less administration, more time for patient care. In a hectic workday, employees often feel underchallenged by basic administrative tasks, leading to a loss of motivation and passion for their job. This can lead to high staff turnover. When bots do routine tasks, it helps prevent that. On the financial side, digital process management also brings significant benefits: Errors are reduced, and the costs arising from defects are kept to a minimum. Overall, automation leads to lower labor and personnel expenses.
How does Robotic Process Automation work?
What business goals is your organization pursuing? This is the basis for your digital process management. The first step is for a dedicated team to identify which processes are suitable for automation. The selection is based on the individual business case, which is evaluated according to its complexity, processing time, and frequency. Simple processes are best suited to RPA. Additionally, the data must be available in digital form so that a bot can process it. For automation, Telekom's Open Cloud offers secure platforms along with the corresponding services. Once the software is implemented, the digital assistant can start working. It imitates keyboard keystrokes and “reads” the documents designated for automation. Take an email, for example: First, it is interpreted and classified using AI. Then, the bot extracts the metadata, which is stored and further processed. Finally, the bot can move the email to the corresponding digital inboxes.
Which processes are suitable for RPA?
Not all processes are suitable for the introduction of Robotic Process Automation. They must meet the following requirements for RPA:
Previously processed manually and repeatable at a high frequency (e.g. daily, weekly).
Rule-based: If, then functions must be fulfilled. Are fixed processes in place? This offers ideal conditions.
Data must be available in digital form: Bots can only process digital content.
The volume of transactions should be as high as possible.
Standardized process: It should be stable and not have to continuously improve itself so that the robot does not have to change along with it.
Where is Robotic Process Automation used?
Stakeholders in the healthcare sector use robotic process automation (RPA) wherever manual processes need to be optimized. The following areas of application are conceivable:
| Finance department | Invoice processing, creation of SEPA mandates, data maintenance, and data transfers |
|---|---|
| Personnel department | Resume screening, payroll accounting and master data processing, digital personnel file |
| IT department | Data migrations, database management, creating accounts and accesses, license management |
| Nursing and management staff | Staff deployment planning, documentation and automated assignment of billing codes |
| Doctors | Filling trauma register, automated patient discharge letter and vaccination management |
| Patients | Patient admission, admission and discharge management, transportation / referral |