Healthcare entities always strive to focus on the patient care experience and outcomes.
But inefficient and time-consuming clinical workflows are the major barrier that restricts healthcare professionals, clinics, organizations and startups to focus on patient satisfaction.
However, digital healthcare technologies are shattering those barriers without adding any complexity.
So, in this article, we are going to discuss how the healthcare industry can optimize clinical workflows using robust and outcome-driven digital health tech solutions.
Top 10 methods to optimize clinic workflows with tech!
#1. Automatic patient intake software:
Patients suffer so do their care providers!
The traditional intake process includes tons of paperwork which is time-consuming and at the same time costly.
But patient intake software decodes this entire mess.
It enables healthcare organizations to share document links with patients so that they can fill out the form before getting into a live-in person visit.
This eliminates patient waiting room needs and allows healthcare professionals to prepare for the patient’s health conditions.
#2. EMR/EHR software:
EMR/EHR contains a patient’s medical, insurance and personal data in order to deliver data-driven care.
But, it also plays a significant role in the healthcare ecosystem by streamlining and improving care coordination. This approach saves money, enriches productivity and reduces the work burden of the healthcare staff.
What’s more important here is that it facilitates the data flow that directly reduces the clinical hours and speeds up the entire care delivery cycle.
As a result, it improves the patient quality care of experience and satisfaction.
#3. Patient portal solutions:
The patient portal is one of the best ways to optimize the clinical workflow.
It involves patients in their care needs and plans. And streamlines the workflows of the healthcare entities.
For instance, patients can access their healthcare records without communicating with the clinics or hospitals.
On the other hand, it makes patients’ registration and discharge process hassle-free along with helping in a greater focus on patient care needs.
#4. RPA (Robotic Process Automation):
RPA is going to be the next big thing in the healthcare environment in the next few years.
It helps the healthcare entities to automate and streamline the clinical workflows.
For instance, automated data entry, claim management, scheduling process, intake and output, supply chain and inventory management, customer relationship management and the list goes on and on and on.
That’s the reason, the global RPA market was valued at USD 1.13 Billion in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 1.83 Billion by 2028!
This shows how RPA is optimizing clinical workflows in the true sense.
#5. AI (Artificial Intelligence):
Let us introduce AI in healthcare.
AI is a new diagnostic tool for healthcare professionals and an optimizing tool for organizations.
AI-driven health tech solutions reduce almost 80% of the clinical hours for healthcare professionals! Interesting right?
But what’s more fascinating is that it speeds up the care approach, improves patient care outcomes and reduces the costs, time and resources under the same roof.
#6. Patient engagement software:
The ultimate goal of the patient engagement software is to streamline and improve the communication between patients and healthcare professionals.
Digital patient intake, patient portal, insurance management, medication management, appointment management, online billing and prescription refills are the common features of the software.
These features enable patients to be involved in their care plan which directly reduces the clinical hours of the medical staff.
#7. Scheduling software:
Streamlined scheduling is one of the most important tasks for healthcare entities.
Poor schedule management influences productivity, operation efficiency, and overall patient experience. But, what’s more important is that it sometimes results in the burnout of the medical staff.
Scheduling software helps healthcare organizations to streamline their staff scheduling software which directly benefits them in reducing unnecessary clinical workflows.
#8. Integration solutions:
Integration unlocked the endless possibilities to optimize clinical workflows.
Digital health tech solutions are effective but integration makes them more powerful, result-driven, cost-effective and time-consuming in one shot.
In addition to this, it eliminates manual data entry, lowers medical errors, saves almost 70% of clinical hours, improves patient safety and reduces the burnout of healthcare professionals.
Here are some of the examples of healthcare integration solutions that hold the potential to optimize the clinical workflows of healthcare organizations.
- EMR/EHR integration with IoT, PACS, LIS, HIS & telemedicine
- Telemedicine integration with IoT and medical devices
- Medical device integration with EMR/EHR, PACS, HIS, LIS
#9. Healthcare supply chain software:
What if healthcare professionals don’t get the right medical supply, to the right patient at the right time?
A delay in care results in a poor patient care experience or sometimes results in a life-threatening situation.
But, healthcare supply chain software holds the potential to address these concerns with ease. It enables the healthcare staff to get the right medical supply, to the right patients, at the right time.
The most interesting part here is that it reduces the operational time, costs and resources.
#10. Healthcare chatbots:
Medical chatbots are emerging as a new diagnostic tool for the healthcare industry. It is backed by AI and ML algorithms.
Its benefits are endless for patients, healthcare professionals and organizations.
Let’s cover it in a single example.
Healthcare chatbots help the patients in the appointment booking process.
As a result, it reduces the phone calls and unnecessary workflow for the administrative and medical staff which directly reduces the operational and overhead costs for the healthcare organization.
Apart from that, visual assistance, automatic data entry, medication reminder, lead generation and many other things healthcare chatbots can perform within the system.
Final words
Optimizing clinical workflows opens a vast number of opportunities to thrive as a healthcare organization.
Thus, custom healthcare solutions are now in the high-demand as more and more healthcare entities want to reduce their cost and operational time along with enhancing the patient care experience, safety and overall outcomes.
The future of digital health tech is promising. AI and RPA are going to be revolutionary tech solutions for the healthcare industry.