The ongoing pandemic has definitely put a strain on health care systems. Health care workers are facing challenges like never before due to an increase in COVID-19 cases. As active cases increase day by day, organizations are in need of short term solutions that can help reduce the strain on health care teams. Here is when Healthcare Automation matters more than ever! With the help of automation and Artificial intelligence, clinician burnouts can be reduced. Lack of social interaction is one of the main benefit. Saving on labour, improved quality and consistence, data-driven insights and a better predictability of outcomes are a few among the others. There is an on-going effort worldwide to provide better service to patients and respond to demand.

Here are 5 innovative ways automation is being used during the pandemic

1. Reduction in waiting time at COVID-19 testing sites

The Centres for Disease Control (CDC) in the United States is working to approve more organizations (such as pharmacies) to become drive-up COVID-19 testing sites. Existing testing sites have been experiencing huge demand. Labour-intensive protocol is needed for every test and it must be done while maintaining hygiene and  social distancing. The Cleveland Clinic created a UiPath robot. It can check if a person is a new or existing Cleveland Clinic patient, registers them in the Epic EMR software system, and accurately selects the right remote printer to print each test label. All of which is completed by the robot in fourteen to sixteen seconds.

2. Automated COVID-19 test results

Administrative work at COVID-19 testing sites can be cumbersome and repetitive. Automation can be used to help reduce repetitive tasks such as updating records. At Mater Misericordiae University Hospital (Mater Hospital) in Dublin, Ireland, UiPath and RPA robots are used to automate reporting COVID-19 test results. They log into the hospital’s lobotomy system, apply the correct disease code, and input the test result. This helps to reduce 3  hours of work each day! In this way nursing staff can focus on what they do best: caring for patients.

3. Managing orders of medical supplies

The procurement department at one major hospital in Canada is dealing with medical supply; volumes that are ten to twenty times more than their typical medical supplies needs. The hospital is making use of robots to balance orders and inventory in real time. This not only help relieve strain on the procurement staff but also ensures requested medical supplies are delivered on time to the correct hospital storeroom.

4. Analysing COVID-19 data from around the world

Analyzing COVID-19 related data from all over the world can be a task. A specialized global healthcare agency set up a data filtering system. Information from various countries is processed using UiPath robots – including scraping data from five different systems -and then centralize it into a single source.

5. Aiding in hiring of healthcare staff and volunteers

A government agency is using UiPath robots to run the background checks and upload data from applications into HR systems. Once the volunteer is ready to be onboarded, robots notify the relevant departments. Robots are even being used to help assign volunteers to job areas based on employee needs.

Also, check out these automation trends that are changing patient experience in clinics and waiting areas. While Automation will aid in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, it will also continue to deliver benefits long term benefits to the health care industry.