It is no secret that the Healthcare Industry struggles with integrating data across its multiple platforms to manage Revenue Cycles (RCM). Platforms include patient data (Electronic Health Record or EHR), clinical data and payor data. This blog relates how SphereGen helps its Healthcare customers solve this challenge using UiPath Robotic Processing Automation (RPA). Data is easily integrated to eClinicalWorks to facilitate Revenue Cycle Management.
Using RPA to Integrate Data for RCM
Overall, Revenue Cycle Management is built around disparate workflows which require large manual efforts to achieve results. These workflow tasks are redundant and inefficient. Data is continually manipulated to move from system to system. Not surprisingly, the efforts require multiple points of human intervention and rekeying of data, which inherently leads to errors. This type of workflow is the perfect candidate for RPA.
Robotic process automation (RPA) has proven itself as an effective way to automate highly manual, repeatable tasks. Human intellect and efforts are freed up to be allocated to more technical and important processes. This leads to a reduction in costs and creates higher employee job satisfaction leading to a more enjoyable work environment. We have seen that the Healthcare industry is adopting RPA on a broader scale, especially in RCM. The upside of incorporating RPA to automate tasks are substantial.
Benefits of automating tasks in RCM:
- Applying updates or data corrections to multiple systems no longer requires manual effort. Data correction is entered once, and automated processes disperse updates to all necessary systems
- Less manual data manipulation results in error reduction
- Cost Savings result from reduced processing time
- The staff has more time to focus on tasks that require human decision making
- Recognize ROI within a few months
When SphereGen first started working with customers to automate RCM tasks, the goal was to apply updates from payor or other EHR systems, such as Meditech or EPIC, to eClinicalWorks. This required using Computer Vision and the Classic Activities Framework to scrape data from screens. The data was then used to retrieve necessary billing information which was reformatted to apply updates to ECW.
Within the past year, UiPath has released new features which compose the Modern UI Framework. The Modern UI Framework allows for advanced UI element processing. UI elements hierarchies are stored in a repository, which enables better screen tracking. When combined with the Classic Activities Framework, the automated processing gains a higher level of screen element identification and tracking which lends to process futureproofing. For example, if a text box moves on an ECW screen, the UiPath object repository has a record of the elements. The automation can intrinsically react to recognize the new position. Minor efforts are needed to realign the automation with new system releases.
Usually when talking about custom application development to integrate data, the development timeline can become lengthy. When using a tool such as UiPath, the development process is streamlined as the tool produces most of the code scripting. The project timeline relies more heavily on the analysis to detail the steps of the current process, so that the automation is coded correctly. An automation to integrate data from other systems to eClinicalWorks can sometimes be accomplished in as little as 2 months.
If you need more information about how to realize the benefits of RPA in integrating data to eClinicalWorks, please contact us!
SphereGen is a UiPath Partner and Microsoft Partner with expertise in implementing successful applications in Healthcare, Manufacturing, and Distribution. We offer custom software services in Application Modernization/Support, Robotic Process Automation and Extended Reality. Learn more about our work at https://www.spheregen.com
