Recently, Josephine Klinkenberg successfully defended her thesis before the thesis committee of the Rotterdam Business School. With this she has successfully completed her studies in Business IT & Management. During her internship at Tacstone, Josephine researched the rise of robotization in the healthcare sector, particularly in home care agencies and hospitals.

Application of RPA within healthcare facilities

Digital assistants can take over a lot of administrative work in healthcare. Not only from administrative staff but also from healthcare staff. In particular, freeing up the time of healthcare personnel is relevant at this time when healthcare is under such pressure. Every hour that a doctor, nurse or home care worker does not have to spend on administrative tasks can be used to deliver care to patients and clients.

75% expect major impact of RPA within healthcare facilities

In her research, through an online survey and dozens of in-person interviews, Josephine asked how healthcare workers view the impact of robotization on their work. Over three-quarters indicated that they expect software robots to take over a very large portion of administrative work in the coming years. Over half also expect that this will make their own work more enjoyable and challenging because they will be relieved of boring administrative work.

The research shows that there are many mutual differences in how the target group views robotization. Some quotes from the interviews are illustrative of this:

“Robotization is extremely needed in our profession. Healthcare is now mired in red tape due to a culture of distrust and controls. We must free ourselves from that recurring administrative ‘drudgery’ so that we will finally have real time for exceptional cases.”

“I have doubts about using software robots in my work. If such a robot makes certain selections, I would be afraid that it forgets things. And so I still have to read through the entire content so that I can check and take over all the relevant data.”

“I actually really enjoy my current job because of the combination of administrative tasks, facilitating care teams and maintaining contact with clients and relatives. I don’t know if robotization will necessarily make my job more enjoyable?”

“Keep those robots coming, the sooner the better! If we can do registration automatically when a new patient is admitted, it will save a lot of valuable time. An also standardizing emergency procedures or order sets in an EHR in acute situations will start saving the physician and us a lot of valuable time.”

Tacstone’s RPA projects within healthcare facilities

For us, this picture is very recognizable. Although robotization is booming, we see that in practice this new technology still raises many questions. This is why we continue to pay unrelenting attention to “democratizing” the RPA philosophy. At the start of each new RPA project, we show many practical examples of software robots that perform tasks – very recognizable for the employees involved and the management – automatically. We discuss how the employee and the robot will soon work together. We clarify the expected impact on the work of the employee. And, of course, we discuss what RPA can concretely deliver, not only for the department or organization itself but also for external stakeholders such as customers or patients.

For Josephine, the internship and research are over. We congratulate her on her degree and we will of course take the results from the research with us on our RPA journey.

Are you an administrator, manager or employee in healthcare and interested in what RPA can do for you? If so, please contact Mark de Poorter of Tacstone.