7 Processes You Need to Automate In A Hospital

It was expected that by the middle of the twenty-first century patient care in hospitals will be highly automated. One of the processes you need to automate is suggesting a plan of care for each patient based on analysis of both the patient’s history and detailed data about specific treatment options. Forecasts of all patients' needs will be available to each patient service unit. In automation, systems will optimize schedules, order supplies, and prompt completion of the original assignment and follow-up of any unexpected occurrences. Complete records will be immediately  available to establish expectations and monitor performance for the doctor and the nurse.

Automation has had a much wider acceptance in finance and billing for services than in patient care. But automation is being used increasingly in analyzing treatment in relation to outcome and in developing standards for diagnosis and treatment. The application for processes you need to automate in health care is by no means new. Earlier straightforward applications included text production and editing, data analyses, and adjacent graphics products. Narrow range clinical application involved the use of neurodiagnostic scanners (for example magnetic resonance imaging and CAT scan). What is new in health care is the accelerated pace of innovation, clinical application development, and information management opportunities. Entire departments of service known as health-care information (a science of information, technology, and knowledge applied to health care) have developed over the last few years.

Centralized Processes to Automate

This complex process of bringing together hardware, software, telecommunications, and people is applied for processes you need to automate to resolve business problems within the hospital organization. It includes designing, developing and implementing new application systems; customizing and implementing proven off-the-shelf application systems; supplying or upgrading computer processing facilities; change management, training, consulting, and technology transfer; ongoing field support and maintenance; network design, implementation and operations; on-going management and support of IT facilities, resources and processes and, over-all project management including project financing. Some of the current developments in this field are fueled by:

• The increasing demand concerning cost, quality, and outcome of services; 
• The growth of managed care systems and new reimbursement methodologies in health care; 
• The emergence of more systematic approaches to disease entities such as clinical pathways and guidelines and “disease management” models; 
• An accelerated rate of knowledge development in health care; 
• The proliferation and availability of high speed, high-powered distributed, and network ready computer technology; 
• A national commitment and plan for use of information highways from the executive office of the government; and
• Increasing awareness through accrediting bodies of the need for health care organizations to use information and knowledge more effectively.

7 Hospital Workflows and its Automation

Here are 7 hospital workflows that tend to be problematic or irritating for patients and how to fix them through workflow automation:

1. Admission Processes. Automating admission processes can save time, improve the patient experience and generally enhance effective operational procedures.
2. Emergency Room Operations. Core processes have to be connected between the registration and check-in sections, ER physicians and specialists. If these processes are not streamlined, patients may end up waiting too long for treatment.
3. Transfers to Other Hospitals. By using a process automation software, such as Integromat, to automate their transfer processes and collaborate with each other seamlessly.
4. Medication Processes. Workflow technology, when used well, can reduce medication errors significantly and enhance operational efficiency, while curbing financial losses caused by dosage and dispensing issues.
5. Medical Documentation. Automating medical records documentation improves patient care management due to its accessibility (anytime, anywhere), quality, improved accuracy, adaptability, less storage costs, and faster retrieval.
6. Supply of Drugs. By automating supply, storage and inventory of medication, errors and drug shortages would be minimized, thereby improving patient experience.
7. Patient Flow. By automating patient flow processes (eg. automating communications across departments). To do that successfully, you’ll need a dependable workflow automation software.

Final Thoughts

Health is one of the imperative social sectors. A satisfactory degree of health of the public is significant to facilitate them to run a socially and economically productive life and consequently aid in economic progress. Effectiveness in this case may be regarded as the terms of sufficient health care by yielding the preeminent utilization of accessible resources particularly through automation systems – the utilization of computer programming software to aid in the management of hospitals.

Wrap Up

We hope you enjoyed our post about hospital workflows and automation. It’s clear that when hospitals automate their processes they save time, process more orders, and get more work done. We hope you find this article helpful and that it helps you out in your journey to using a well-improved health information backend system. If you have any questions or comments about hospital workflows or hospital automation click this link for a free consultation with our leading automation expert.