9 Clinical Tasks You Can Automate in Healthcare

Healthcare providers, insurance companies, and patients alike are swamped with documents that may not always be organized. In fact, nearly three-quarters of healthcare professionals say the time or effort needed to complete clinical documentation hampers patient care.

By automating tasks and paperwork, patients can have a better experience, and healthcare providers can focus on treating patients. Here are nine tasks you can easily automate in healthcare.

 

1. Patient Intake

Skip the piles of paperwork at the front desk. You can automate many patient intake tasks, and patients and secretaries alike will collectively sigh with relief. Use automated systems to send patients eForms ahead of time to fill out on any smart device.

 

2. Document Routing

New provider protocol? Need to process SOPs for new nurses? No problem. Document routing can be easily automated to make sure all documents are properly reviewed and distributed. You can create custom workflows for different departments and healthcare providers.

 

3. Gathering Consent/Signatures

eSignatures are one of the easiest tasks to automate in healthcare. If a form needs to be signed off on by multiple people, an automated system can notify each person when it is time to review the document. As soon as one person has signed it, the next person can get an automated notification to keep the review process in motion. Privacy and consent-to-treat forms are essential, and with automated processes, you can stay organized with signatures, timestamps, and audit trails.

 

4. Printer Redirections and Deployments 

Remember that scene in the movie Office Space where the men take the printer outside and beat it with a bat? You’ll never have to feel like that if you automate printer redirections and deployments. If a printer is jammed or is out of paper or ink, you can easily redirect your print job to a printer that’s working. You can also easily choose where to send your print job, making it ideal for employees who travel or who move around the office building frequently. Keep reading for additional info about how to improve your clinical printing processes with Output Automation from Vasion Print. 

 

5. Auditing/Compliance

Healthcare providers must strictly enforce compliance around the clock. Process automation software can gather information, identify risks, and increase cybersecurity for better compliance and data safety. Automating auditing and compliance tasks can help ensure everyone has reviewed and signed policies, provide an audit trail, and identify which stakeholders need to be involved in a decision. Learn more about how to protect PHI with cloud-native printing. 

6. Record Storage

Filing cabinets and manila folders are things of the past. Digitize old records to keep them safer and more accessible. Automated record storage can help you organize files, make documents searchable with optical character recognition, and even provide summaries of patient health histories based on their previous medical records. You can also automate record storage and retention rules to make sure you’re not storing old information.

 

7. Billing and Invoicing

Unfortunately, there’s no simple fix for the entire insurance industry, but automating billing and invoicing tasks can help make the process a bit easier. Set up automated billing, claims submission, and invoicing to stay on top of what insurance companies will and won’t cover. Automated billing and invoicing can also remind patients when they have payments due and on the status of their claims.

 

8. Real-Time Reporting

You’ll never have to pull a manual spreadsheet again if you automate reporting. Your clinic can get real-time data on how many patients you’re seeing, the variation of conditions, how much insurance is paying, duration of visits, and average copay costs. The information can be delivered to you in any cadence. With up-to-date info, you can make informed decisions about how staffing per shift, the maximum patient capacity in your facility, and other crucial arrangements.

 

9. Document Scanning and Capture

Centralize all patient information in a single repository by automating document scanning and capturing. You can digitize old files, scan in papers from health insurance companies, and add medical records from other facilities. Automated document scanning keeps these documents organized, secure, accessible, and easily searchable.