Key Benefits of Intelligent Automation:
Reduces Referral Backlog
Improves Waitlist Management
Transforms Patient Care
Minimises Clinical Risk
Increases Workforce Capability
Enhances Data Quality
Sharon Osterfield – Transformation Director, e18 Innovation
“The scale of the challenge facing the NHS to recover its elective care backlog is significant. Also, staffing shortages, coupled with high turnover rates, continue to be a concern for most NHS organisations. Not only is the NHS as a whole currently unable to meet almost every target performance metric, worryingly, the trends are worsening month-on-month. Change is undoubtedly required to maintain the provision of healthcare services and reverse the negative trajectory.”
Utilising Intelligent Automation Tools to Reform Outpatient Services
The demand for secondary care services in England is increasing at an unprecedented rate, and the traditional approach of addressing capacity issues with temporary staffing is no longer feasible. NHS organisations have recognised that in order to maintain the provision of healthcare services, whilst simultaneously reducing the elective care backlog, digital transformation is required at scale.
Many trusts have turned to Intelligent Automation tools to increase efficiency, plug interoperability gaps within outpatient departments, and free up staff time. The majority of services operate multiple legacy systems, with both clinical and non-clinical staff frequently required to transfer data between systems. Administrative processes such as taking referrals from eRS and processing them into the trust’s Electronic Patient Records (EPRs), sending appointment reminders and executing re-bookings when required, and managing DNA processes to maximise capacity and ensure patient prioritisation, can all be automated, and have the potential to save significant amounts of time that can be repurposed to directly support patients.
Sharon Osterfield – Transformation Director, e18 Innovation
“There is a pressing need for NHS organisations to accelerate digital transformation in order to support elective care recovery. A number of trusts that we work in partnership with at e18 are already using Intelligent Automation tools, such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Conversational AI, to augment their workforce and address operational challenges. The benefits associated with automation are truly transformational for NHS organisations; for example, on average an acute trust can save around 10,000 hours per year by automating the processing of routine referrals.”
Use Cases