Robotic Process Automation: Will Robots Replace Hospital Employees?

The growth of robotic process automation, or RPA, is giving businesses of all kinds the ability to handle rote tasks and boost efficiency. The technology, as the Association for Intelligent Information Management notes, involves software tools that partially or fully automate human activities that are manual, rule-based and repetitive.

Applied in healthcare, RPA “bots” may expedite many clinical functions to add value throughout the provider supply chain. Common uses include extraction and analysis of patient data, appointment scheduling and claims processing.

RPA tools offer “a tremendous opportunity for healthcare and life sciences organizations to alleviate some of the administrative burdens that plague healthcare delivery while also assisting clinicians in making decisions about patient care,” Deloitte principal David Yarin notes in an analysis published in the The Wall Street Journal.