An edited version of this blog was published on 4th May 2018 on www.healthbridge.co.za.
Healthcare automation is more than just a buzzword; it has become a way of reinventing your entire healthcare practice, from day-to-day office administration to billing to patient management. Over the past few years South African doctors and their practices have come to accept the benefits of moving over from outdated and burdensome paper-based methods to agile, automated solutions. However, even though more doctors are migrating to digital on a yearly, if not monthly basis, do they know how to use automation to the best of their ability to save costs, cut waste, and improve efficiency, productivity and patient engagement? And what about doctor’s practices that are still reliant on paper to carry out important tasks? Surely they would have more questions about the benefits of automation and even a few defensive answers ready at hand to justify their outdated methods?
Automation is nothing to be afraid of and, despite its late introduction in healthcare it has proven again and again to be beneficial to doctors and their practices. Below are a few top benefits to applying automation to your practice:
Practice management
Admin and its associated mountains of paper work is probably the most tiresome and burdensome task associated with any doctor’s practice – just ask healthcare administrators. The introduction of a digital solution automates manually intensive and redundant tasks which frees up the time of the administrator, and even the doctor, to carry out more high-functioning and important patient-facing tasks.
While human error may be a nuisance in the doctor’s practice, unfortunately it’s an all too common occurrence. With automation comes greater quality, consistency and accuracy of captured information, and it also eliminates duplication in, for example, patient files. Also while paper can be handy when you need to jot something down quickly, that slip of paper can easily get lost or damaged. This is another benefit of cloud-based automation – once the information is digitally captured it can be securely accessed from any location.
Cost savings & improved insights
You can’t have good practice management without an efficient payments and invoicing system in place. Automation ensures patient bills are settled or reimbursed by medical aids promptly and accurately, ensuring a healthy revenue stream.
Automation also streamlines the practice management process and enables staff to handle a larger population of patients, which correlates to increased revenue. The wealth of data that’s accumulated through electronic systems can be viewed in real-time and used for performance improvement and optimisation to ensure your practice is running to the best of its ability. For example, these valuable data-driven insights can be used to generate real-time reports and provide accurate and honest insights into the successes or challenges of your doctor’s practice, and also provide an accurate overview of how you are operating and what needs to be adjusted to ensure improved efficiency.
Patient engagement
Running an efficient and profitable doctor’s practice is important, but just as important is ensuring you have happy patients. One of the top complaints patients have about making a doctor’s appointment is the inconvenience of having to make a phone call and being placed on hold before finally getting through to find out about available days and time slots.
Commuters no longer have to waste airtime, time and patience when calling a taxi thanks to app based ride hailing services like Uber, so why should healthcare consumers be treated any differently?
There are amazing digital solutions available like RecoMed where patients can find their nearest doctor and seamlessly schedule an appointment. On the doctor’s side, the same solution can be connected to their management system to easily view requested appointments and schedule them into your digital diary.
Automation also helps in ensuring patients make their appointments on time because reminders can be sent out via email or SMS, as well as alerts about any health issues or follow up appointments. Patients rely on digital solutions in their everyday life, so why should their healthcare be any different?
Patient journey
The reality of healthcare in every country is that patients are mobile; it’s therefore no longer feasible to not support the patient’s journey with an electronic medical record (EMR) solution. It’s time consuming and dangerous to expect a patient to carry their yellow paper folder containing all of their important medical information with them to their next doctor’s appointment; the file could get damaged, lost or even stolen.
An automated system can send pertinent medical information to the referred healthcare provider at the click of a button. In addition, digital medical images and lab results can be requested and forwarded as needed throughout the patient’s healthcare pathway, ensuring the avoidance of unnecessary wastage and costs associated with duplicate tests.
Having a digital picture of the patient’s journey also allows for a greater overview of the patient’s health and whether they are on track to achieving desired outcomes. Having the patient’s data in front of you also makes it easier to determine whether the patient has deviated from their care plan or medicine regimen so that interventions can be facilitated, as necessary.
Automation is no longer an option
Quality and timely healthcare is a necessity and automation has become an essential component of achieving these important outcomes. The application of automation in the areas of EMRs, order entry and decision support are essential in increasing positive patient outcomes, reducing patient readmission rates and slashing overall costs. A connected doctor’s practice also means you can connect with patients more efficiently and meet their expectations of providing the best care and quality service possible.
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