Healthcare organizations are their own universe. On one hand, healthcare professionals have to provide expert care for patients, while on the other they have to manage business aspects and keep abreast of developments in treatment protocol.
The industry has traditionally been driven primarily by manual effort. In a study titled ‘The uncertain road ahead: Could technology offer hospitals relief from increasing margin pressures?’ conducted by Deloitte revealed that labor costs accounted for 60 percent of noncapital costs and was consistently the largest expense from 2011 to 2015 in US healthcare organizations.
The study also predicted that almost 60 percent of healthcare organizations could see negative margins by year 2025 if they’re unable to keep up with changes in policy and the economy.
This insight highlights the pressing need for healthcare organizations everywhere to combine human input with technological advancements to drive greater efficiency and future-proof their establishments.
Why is BPM suited for healthcare?
BPM can help overcome typical challenges that come with human-intensive, service-oriented organizations. Inconsistency and chaos are some of the common problems that are alleviated.
More benefits of BPM implementation include:
- Improved operational efficiency
- Better leveraged data
- Greater ability to respond to and adopt industry developments
- Minimized errors and delays
- Improved bottom line
- Higher level of patient care
- Greater compliance with legal, financial, and industry regulations
For a clearer picture, take a look at how BPM improves specific healthcare processes.
BPM use cases in healthcare
BPM can be implemented in all departments of healthcare organizations. Here are 6 examples of how processes can be improved.
Claims and billing
Healthcare billing departments can often be chaotic. To generate one patient invoice, the department has to coordinate with multiple other internal departments such as doctors and nurses, administration, housekeeping, pharmacy, and more. The billing team also needs to coordinate with insurance companies for cashless transactions and claims reimbursements.
All these processes can be streamlined with BPM systems. Speed and accuracy of invoicing can also be improved while facilitating audit trails.
Compliance
Healthcare establishments have to follow various regulations and industry standards. It’s especially critical to maintain compliance so as to assure a certain standard of patient care. BPM software helps maintain requisite records and process performance data to demonstrate process compliance during audits.
Leave management
Since healthcare organizations have large numbers of employees, managing leave and staffing schedules are a significant challenge. From leave requisitions to attendance reports, tasks can be completed with greater accuracy with the help of BPM software. This helps prevent approval delays, manage paid leave, and ensure that all shifts are optimally staffed.
Document management
Healthcare organizations deal with large amounts of documents on a day-to-day basis. From patient records and payment data to internal documents and confidential information, it can get overwhelming quickly. Digitized documents still require significant human effort to organize, cross-reference information, and ensure data security.
BPM systems alleviate these challenges by providing cloud-based centralized database and conditional access to sensitive data. Additionally, they help standardize and format data, leveraging information for valuable insights.
Procurement
In healthcare organizations, medical equipment needs to be purchased at regular intervals and supplies need to be well stocked at all times. When this process is not automated, it can cause productivity to tank. Paper requisitions pile up and get misplaced. Automation ensures that approvals are quick, supplier performance is monitored, and inventory is managed well.
Patient scheduling
Optimal patient scheduling is important to improve efficiency and boost revenues. Following up with patients, optimizing physicians’ time, and communicating effectively can be done easily with automation. Efficient patient scheduling can improve the quality of care and patient experience. From booking appointments online to follow up reminders after appointments, BPM systems can streamline the entire process.
Features of a BPM system that improve healthcare management
Some features of BPM systems that can power healthcare management include
- Workflow automation for efficient processes
- Reports and analytics for valuable insights on process performance
- Collaboration to simplify communication between stakeholders
- Mobility for on-the-go approvals
- Efficient storage and security of data
- Comprehensive dashboards for greater visibility
How Kissflow Process can help healthcare institutions
If you are looking for ways to improve efficiency in your healthcare establishment, Kissflow is a compelling choice. Its no-coding intuitive design helps you automate workflows quickly with minimal dependence on IT teams.
Cloud-based hosting and role-based data access enable central database and greater control over data security. Kissflow Process integrates easily with existing systems in use.
Sign up for a customizable demo today and drive your healthcare organization to the peak of efficiency.
