Automation can help healthcare organizations tackle ingrained problems in new ways. However, developing the right strategy and roadmap for automation is a critical factor for success.
During a March webinar hosted by Becker's Hospital Review and sponsored by Optum, three leaders from Optum Advisory Services (Optum’s health care consulting division) discussed insights and approaches to addressing longstanding challenges with new-generation solutions. The panelists were:
- Matthew Kinney, senior client partner
- Marc Morhack, senior director
- K. R. Prabha, vice president, strategy growth and innovation
Three takeaways:
- Intelligent automation augments the human workforce. In healthcare, as in other industries, the goal of automation is to replace high-volume, low-yield tasks performed by humans. The purpose of intelligent automation, however, is to help organizations move from simple, transactional process automation to judgment-driven automation supported by artificial intelligence. This process is best visualized as a continuum that includes different levels of automation: fundamental, basic, robotic process automation (RPA), advanced, automated decision-making and AI. "The steps along the way have a value proposition back to your bottom line," Mr. Kinney said.
Mr. Morhack added, "You can see how the average ROI tends to increase as you move up the continuum."
- Automation and technology affect the workforce, patients and revenue. The areas most affected by automation and technology involve people and represent emotional or social challenges, which makes the need for intelligent automation even more important. These areas are:
- Workforce. Overcoming staffing shortages requires both transactional automation and intelligent automation. "[Most] clinicians and staff believe automation is good for them and supports their core focus of taking care of patients," Ms. Prabha said.
- Patients. Health systems have difficulty assembling a longitudinal view of the patient journey because of the inherent fragmentation of care delivery and payment models. Health systems may also be challenged to comply with new price transparency rules and to keep up with the latest consumer technology. Intelligent automation can help health systems surmount those hurdles and deliver a more customer-centric experience by providing simplicity around access to care and clarity to patients around where they are in their care and financial journeys.
- Revenue. Appropriate reimbursement depends on accurate documentation of care, especially in the context of complex value-based care arrangements. Intelligent automation can optimize both ends of the RCM process by identifying high-risk patients who require more touchpoints, which allows teams to focus efforts where they'll have the greatest impact.
- Technology investments must align to clear goals and strategy. To realize the projected return on technology and automation investments, organizations must have clarity on what they aim to achieve and a roadmap for how to go about it. "If we're only looking at cost reductions, we're probably leaving a lot of other opportunities on the table," Mr. Morhack said.
For successful implementation of technology, one of the most important aspects is to ensure solutions integrate with and augment each other across functional groups and workflows. Other decisions, such as whether to develop a solution in-house, lease it, buy it or partner with its developer, are best made by considering the stage of the automation continuum in which organizations find themselves.
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