Automated workflows have successfully solved the paper problems in hospitals in recent years. It is expensive to manage extensive paperwork based workflows in hospitals. Automated workflows have replaced these paper-based workflows to save cost and time and have streamlined the operations. Healthcare workflow solutions
don’t cost much and are customizable as per the hospital’s specific requirements. Such automation for hospitals increases the efficiency significantly while driving innovation. The automated workflow makes it easy to search and access the information fed into the system. Here are a few ideas to help your hospital get started with automated workflows.
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Best 5 Ways to Automate Healthcare Workflows
1. EHR Systems
The lack of automation puts EHR or Electronic Health Records at risk. There are several incidents reported each year of hospital staff feeding wrong information into the EHR systems that lead to misdiagnosis. When the automated workflow is implemented across the broader spectrum of the hospital network, including medical test labs, the margin of error is almost eliminated. Automation software records the test results and back it up safely on the cloud network from where it can be safely retrieved whenever required. The physicians can even access the EHR data from their phones with automation. The paperwork-based workflow does not offer such streamlined processing, accessibility, and convenience.
2. Increase Help Desk Response Time
When your help desk processes are automated, there are fewer chances for any kind of technical snags occurring during emergencies and rush periods. The automation admin can assign tickets based on priority and urgency while sending reminders to follow-up and accelerate the pace in which a case is resolved. It helps in saving time while improving the efficiency of the system as a whole. A similar automated workflow can be replicated in the IT department of the hospital, as well.
3. Patient Admission and Discharge
In a hospital workflow structure, approval is needed at every step from an administrator or a doctor. In a traditional paperwork based workflow, the procedure can be lengthy and time-consuming. Automated workflow allows doctors and administrators to provide approval through their smartphone, tablet, or PC. It makes admission and discharge process faster and hassle-free, especially for the patients and their families. Automating the registration, discharge, billing, and insurance processes, help in improving the productivity of the hospital.
4. Managing Staff Roster
Assigning shifts to different hospital staff on paper and keeping a tab on who is coming and who are on leave can be a tedious process. It often leads to errors and miscalculations that cost hospitals gravely. The cloud applications available these days make managing staff roster -swift and effortless. It not only takes less time to manage and define a schedule; it is more accurate as well. The scheduling software can be linked with the automation software to get an integrated view of hospital backend management. The staff can be notified without delay for any changes in the scheduling, and getting approvals for rosters becomes much easier as well with automation.
5. Staff Onboarding
The traditional onboarding process can take weeks before the new staff can join the duty after completing all the formalities. It is a loss to the hospital when a talented staff is hired, but the onboarding process delays his or her joining. The automated workflow ensures that the recruit doesn’t have to fill in dozens of forms and can get started much faster.
Healthcare workflow solutions are changing the way the healthcare industry functions these days for good. It has dramatically improved the efficiency and productivity of the hospitals. The benefits of automation are passed on in the form of better services and low cost to the patients.
