AUTOMATION IN HEALTHCARE: FROM THEN TO NOW
A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE PAST
Over the last 30 years, the healthcare industry has seen few innovators who have developed truly revolutionary ideas in clinical support systems. Since only five years ago, the emphasis has shifted from applying computer technology to hospital administration to applying technology to clinical processes.
While order entry, results reporting, and some nursing applications were automated, the industry did not experience innovative automation primarily due to these broad parameters:
1. The scope: The industry had just started witnessing the extended use of clinical data repositories with huge amounts of data available for developing applications.
2. The vision: Until the late 20th century, most vendors had a preconceived notion that there was no need for development of applications while there was still an existing market opportunity for the same.
3. The support: There was insufficient supporting data for proving that advanced clinical applications were worth the effort and cost.
4. The evolution: In addition, the unrealistic growth expectations of stock analysts resulted in very little funding allocated to the development of new systems
Almost all health care administration functions have been automated in the past 20 years. Today, traditional systems are well defined based on market requirements. It is still possible to call the healthcare industry a cottage industry, with several hundred vendors having annual revenues of less than $5 million. As a result, only a few large multi-product vendors have emerged to dominate the industry.
BENEFITS OF AUTOMATION:
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Automation helps improve patient outcomes by supporting technological advancements, making processes more efficient and effective. Common examples of healthcare automation currently include sending text messages to patients reminding them of upcoming appointments. Automation can also warn clinicians of known contraindications and interactions for drugs by accessing a database.
An existing best practice can still at times benefit from automation when an available technology or solution improves upon that practice.
THE NEED:
Due to an aging population and increased patient demand for new services, technologies healthcare has to be transformed in order to keep it available and accessible. To cope with this challenge, healthcare managers and professionals have been looking for new methods of resource utilization and optimization to potentially apply to health care.
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The below are the some of the services where automation helps for the hospitals
Faster Data Retrieval: Data generation is a critical aspect of health care. EHR machines are now being improved to generate data in real-time. This will ease the data extraction process and improve patient care. Besides, health practitioners will easily access the required information when needed
Improved Ordering: The ordering process is challenging and time-consuming. With an EHR machine, it takes multiple clicks to complete a single order. However, predictive AI technologies can significantly promote efficiency in the ordering process.
Quicker Billing: The use of AI in revenue applications can help regenerate bills quicker. Additionally, this saves time when presenting bills to patients, hence improved customer satisfaction.
Improved Patient Participation & Management: Nowadays, most patients use mobile apps for increased engagement. Service mobile apps ease the management of patient care. They make it easier to book appointments, check patient history, and pay hospital bills.
Minimal Errors: Simple mistakes in health care provision can be costly. Physicians are bound to commit mistakes due to fatigue and inattentiveness. However, this isn’t the case with automated machines. Health care providers can use electronic systems to offer timely and efficient services. A computerized platform is more streamlined and leaves no room for blunders
Enhanced Communication: Automation in healthcare enhances communication between patients and health providers. For instance, most patients forget appointment dates and end up missing their appointments. However, with an appointment reminder, the number of patients missing appointments is reduced
Early Disease Detection: Early detection profits patients in various ways. It allows for early treatment, which hinders disease progression. With technological advances like AI in healthcare, it’s easier to determine if a patient has a particular disease. In most cases, this happens before the appearance of the symptoms. For instance, the neural network can detect lung cancer in the early stages
Speed & Precision in Medical Diagnostics Time is very critical in diagnosis, especially ones with serious illnesses. Delayed diagnosis puts the patient at a higher risk of getting worse or succumbing to the disease. By trying to expedite the process, health workers can easily make blunders resulting in inaccurate results. However, the automated diagnostic process delivers speedy and more precise results.
Provision of Quality Care Automation empowers health providers to offer better services. These include; increased efficiency, better patient management, and retrieval of patients’ data. Patient information is always available when needed, and this simplifies care processes.
THE AIM OF AUTOMATION: MEDEVA
Medeva aims to build a Smart environment in institutions that seek to automate and optimize processes using new technologies such as Big Data, IoT, Analytics and Machine Learning, with the aim not only of providing better medical care to patients, but also optimizing processes that make hospitals more efficient and sustainable organizations.