By automating manual tasks such as phone calls, texts, emails, and other activities, workflows and events, the technology burden for navigating and documenting care can be dramatically reduced. Rather than feeling constantly behind and overwhelmed, care teams participate in a more efficient, proactive process, where the technology within their workflows makes it easy to know what to do, and when, for their patients and eliminates time wasted chasing down details and following up with others.

Reduce costs by saving time and avoiding waste
While automating tasks reduces the burden on care teams, it also reduces the cost of care in ways EHRs alone can’t. Standardizing care using best-practices protocols is one approach to reducing costly variations in care. Most organizations have protocols in place to ensure the right care for each patient. However, organizations struggle to implement these protocols at scale because of staffing realities.
For example, when a patient needs a routine procedure, such as a colonoscopy, there is a standard protocol to assure the patient arrives prepared and ready for care. Given that the EHR may not have all the latest information, current medications need to be confirmed with the patient, requiring manual review and follow up. It’s easy for things to get overlooked, such as a patient taking blood thinners not reflected in the EHR medication list. If the patient arrives, but the procedure can’t safely proceed, time and resources are wasted.

Through automation that works in harmony with the EHR, the sequence of tasks for each patient adapts as needed without letting anything fall through the cracks. If the patient confirms current medications do not include blood thinners, no one needs to spend time following up. And, if the patient updates her medication list to include blood thinners, the appropriate care team member is alerted as the pathway adapts to new information. This way, the right steps can be taken proactively, so she can still arrive properly prepared for the procedure. Additionally, clinicians can spend their time with the patients who require their expertise, rather than chasing everyone just to gather data.

This level of clinical workflow automation increases efficiency and productivity while avoiding costly waste from last-minute reschedules and avoidable care delays. As noted above, this approach reduced patient charting time to two minutes per case. When taken at scale, efficient use of time and resources reduces costs system wide.

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