Healthcare Automation Benefits All the Stakeholders Involved
Automation has helped many industries boost their production and efficiency by many orders of magnitude and added value. As the name suggests, by removing manual, repetitive activities from operational workflows, automation eliminates the possibility of human error and increases the speed of working significantly.
Healthcare automation has made it possible to increase the speed and capacity of medical workflows and help improve the clinical outcomes and also the patient experiences. Furthermore, automated health systems also go a long way in helping providers improve their revenue streams. Let’s look at some of the ways how healthcare automation solutions can benefit both providers as well as patients –
Appointment Management
Automated healthcare solutions to manage appointments enable both the staff and the patients to manage and adhere to appointments, respectively. If a person wants to book an appointment, he or she can use an app and do so at any time based on available slots. Subsequently, the staff at the hospital or clinic would see the entire appointment schedule for the day. The best part about this is that it allows the patients to change their appointment timings at any time with a few clicks on an app or a website. Moreover, managing changing appointment timings also becomes much easier for the staff. Another important aspect of patient experience that this addresses is that of missed appointments.
Missed appointments are one of the most common, and yet, the most preventable reasons for the worsening of health conditions. Many studies and research estimate that it costs the healthcare industry billions of dollars as it has a direct correlation with the worsening of health conditions. It is especially true in the case of patients with chronic conditions, who need timely follow-ups and a continuum of care. In light of the fact that over 40% of Americans suffer from at least one chronic condition, the problem of missed appointments is that much more serious.
Medical automation systems for managing appointments automatically follow up with patients with reminders about upcoming appointments. The reminders are automatically sent to patients in the form of messages or push notifications. Moreover, if a patient needs to cancel or reschedule for any reason, they might be automatically redirected to or recommended suitable time slots. Such a functionality goes a long way in helping patients adhere to appointments and also results in a positive experience in their minds. The patients would develop a better rapport with their physician.
Claims Management
Reimbursement of claims is the cornerstone of the revenue streams for healthcare providers. But processing the claims is a highly tedious process for the payers. Sometimes, a claim that might have everything in order might get rejected due to technicalities. Those take up a significant amount of time and resources to resolve.
But automating the healthcare process in claims goes a long in streamlining the workflows and speeding up things. As a result, the providers can rest assured of steady revenue cycles, and the payers too can experience greater efficiency. Additionally, automation in claims management also minimizes discrepancies and chances of insurance fraud, thereby making this a win-win for providers and payers.
To sum it up, automation in healthcare appointment management and claims management together results in a mutually beneficial situation for all the stakeholders involved.
