AI (artificial intelligence) is making strides across industries and the medical field is no exception. This growth is no surprise given that healthcare stakeholders can now leverage AI to automate complex functions such as patient engagement, claims adjudication, inventory management, risk adjustments, billing management, etc. AI-led intelligent automation is empowering the healthcare sector globally by increasing operational efficiencies, streamlining processes, decreasing risks, and churning out important analytical insights.
What is Intelligent Automation?
Also referred to as ‘cognitive automation’ – it is the combination of technologies including AI, machine learning (ML), Natural Language Processing (NLP), Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR), computer vision (CV), etc. to automate complex business processes which in turn facilitates better and faster decision making for enterprises. Intelligent automation enables end-to-end process automation through cognitive, intelligent AI solutions armed with the power of decision-making.
How is Intelligent Automation Used in the Healthcare Sector?
Innovations in cognitive technology today are enabling machines to emulate human activities like thinking, reasoning, and empathizing. The healthcare industry is catching on fast to AI trends by implementing end-to-end automation solutions that make way for a clean, digital future. From minimizing tedious manual work and reducing operational bottlenecks to improving the quality of services, here’s how intelligent automation is reimagining the way healthcare processes are managed:
Enriched Patient Journey
Most healthcare organizations today face difficulties in the appropriate distribution of patient data for it to be available when required. This is oftentimes the result of a frayed and disparate combination of siloed systems, including electronic health records. For patients to have a satisfying experience, it is of utmost importance that their records are available at all times, so that they can navigate smoothly through the various phases of their treatment. An end-to-end automated patient-centric process allows seamless access to data for all stakeholders along with automatic extraction, fetching, and integration of data, reducing unnecessary delays and ensuring a fantastic patient journey.
Streamlined Onboarding and Registration
Manual processes for patient registration and onboarding are akin to delays and costly human errors. For any healthcare organization, the acquisition of a new patient represents a heavy investment. So, there is often a cost incurred on low productivity arising from the amount of time taken for the patient to start receiving care. With an automated process for intelligent document processing, the amount of time taken to onboard patients can be shortened drastically, thus, establishing a trustful relationship between the facility and its patients while also ensuring an enhanced onboarding experience.
Seamless Claims Management
Manual processing of health insurance claims can lead to a high error rate, pushing expensive rework mechanisms in the order. Needless to say, it is also time-consuming and poses a heavy load of paperwork on the teams managing the process. AI solutions can integrate with various systems and complete operations with accuracy at a pace much faster than a human. For example, following the submission of a claim, its status can be tracked and updated in real-time, informing the administrative staff of any claims that need attention and human engagement. Experts are of the opinion that the automation of complex tasks like reviewing user account status and notifying about incomplete claims can reduce up to 30% of employee labor costs annually.
Better Appointment Scheduling and Reminders
Booking appointments and checking on patients continuously are two of the most time-consuming administrative responsibilities. Every patient has a unique set of problems and care. With intelligent automation, it becomes simple to efficiently schedule appointments based on the number of patients and the number of physicians available. Patients can even cancel or reschedule appointments at their convenience eliminating some of the most excruciating tasks for medical caregivers – answering phone calls manually, data entry, and handling no-shows.
Actionable Healthcare Analytics
AI-powered virtual agents are capable of running analytical models on the processes they are deployed on. With the help of data generated from AI-powered analytics, the management of healthcare facilities can make better-informed decisions for clinical, financial, and operational improvement. These powerful analytics can also bring about better outcomes for fraud detection, data security, and treatment planning. Intelligent analytical tools are already being used in healthcare to forecast patient loads, support better management of physicians and staff, reduce unnecessary labor costs, monitor real-time data, and prevent adverse events.
Conclusion
With AI and machine learning becoming more mainstream and easier to implement, stakeholders in the healthcare value chain are relying on process automation to be more responsible, reduce labor costs, minimize errors, and operate efficiently and accurately. The most important responsibility for both clinicians and administrators alike is to provide the best patient care experiences and outcomes. Intelligent automation of healthcare tasks goes a long way in helping healthcare institutes get their job done cheaper, faster, and with better accuracy with improved operating margins and the bandwidth to focus on what really matters – caring non-stop for their patients!
Automate Your Healthcare Processes with E42
E42 is a no-code cognitive process automation (CPA) platform to build AI co-workers that automate various enterprise processes across functions and verticals. Among the many AI workers that are being used by market leaders across industries is our AI Receptionist for Healthcare Providers – an AI co-worker built to automate various monotonous tasks such as appointment scheduling, billing and compliance, clinical documentation, and much more. To know more about what AI-led automation can do for healthcare providers and to embark on your automation journey, reach out to us at interact@e42.ai today!
