We currently live in a world where businesses are continually looking for methods to increase speed, accuracy, and efficiency. The robotic process automation (RPA) business is becoming an increasingly common way to reach those goals.
The World Health Organization details that there are about 2.5 healthcare practitioners per 1,000 patients in the United States, but by 2030, there could be a shortage of up to 120,000 physicians. Therefore, having technology that can help alleviate this problem has become a necessity.
Companies will be looking to capitalize on technologies like RPA as a way to ensure employees are engaged and productive, especially as we move into the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
RPA has experienced widespread adoption over the last couple of years, something that is expected to continue. As a result, it may not be long before it’s used as a solution for every department in organizations that span industries.
Research and advisory company Gartner has indicated that RPA software solutions will likely grow by almost $1.5 billion before 2022. The simplicity and speed with which RPA can automate otherwise manual processes have been a huge factor in why this technology has experienced such high levels of adoption.
Small and medium businesses, as well as huge corporations, can benefit from RPA. This is because it offers faster data processing speeds and requires less time spent on repetitive tasks by workers.
This is a boon to physicians, many of whom are frustrated by all the data entry and tedious tasks they need to do each day. Unfortunately, without RPA solutions, the technology options available to alleviate this issue are often subpar and frustrating for those who use them.
Based on current levels of adoption, the global market size for robotic process automation would reach more than $23 billion by the time 2026 reaches an end.
RPA and the COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Process
The COVID-19 pandemic has created widespread disruption worldwide, which has clued in healthcare organizations about how important automation can be to ensuring business continuity.
Since RPA can make it easier to get through time-consuming and tedious tasks, it can streamline many aspects of healthcare operations. This gives medical professionals the ability to spend more time on patients and less on paperwork.
RPA solutions have also provided better support to healthcare organizations. This permits them to cut down on the potential for employee burnout while frontline workers are pushed to the limit.
Based on KPMG’s AI survey, about 37% of healthcare AI investments will relate to robotic process automation over the next few years. This data comes from approximately 100 respondents associated with life-science and healthcare firms.
As we continue to fight through a pandemic, leaders in these industries rely on RPA and its potential to monitor how the virus spreads and assist with the distribution and development of vaccines.
In March 2021, Notable Health, known as a top provider of quality automation solutions for healthcare, moved into a partnership with North Kansas City Hospital (NKCH) to speed up COVID-19 vaccine distribution for residents of Missouri.
NKCH and Notable Health have created a coalition named Operation Safe. It’s being used to scale vaccination efforts and vaccinate several thousand residents per day.
RPA is being used in tandem with fast healthcare interoperability resources (FHIR) to train bots or digital assistants to search electronic medical records (EMRs) for all available appointment options for patients who meet specific eligibility requirements, such as pre-existing health conditions or age.
NKCH uses the RPA tools provided by Notable Health to digitize and automate the identification, outreach, scheduling, and pre-visit intake workflows to ensure patients are vaccinated more quickly.
Major Tech Companies Focused on the Innovation of RPA
A wide array of business organizations are currently looking at ways to increase productivity using innovative and strategic thinking to find success in a highly competitive world.
Part of this process is accelerating how quickly RPA technologies are deployed across small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs), as well as large organizations.
Many of the world’s top tech firms are innovating and using new strategies while anticipating the potential for similar trends in future years. For example, Microsoft India announced plans to offer its Power Automate Desktop solution for Windows 10 users for no fee in March.
Power Automate Desktop is an RPA application that gives businesses an easier way to automate repetitive manual tasks while emphasizing high-value processes as a way to create better performance and efficiency.
This platform is tailored to be simple to use and lets users reduce worker errors, increase scalability without sacrificing security, streamline workflows, and cut down on maintenance efforts and costs.
During the same time as the preceding announcement, Google Cloud was building a multi-year strategic alliance with Automation Anywhere, an RPA leader globally. The purpose of the alliance is to meet many businesses’ needs for intelligent automation.
The conditions of the deal state that Automation Anywhere will relocate its cloud-native Automation 360 automation platform over to Google Cloud as its main cloud provider. It’s largely expected that the company will be Google Cloud’s chosen partner in RPA efforts.
As a duo, these companies are hoping to create new products and services powered by automation. The new solutions will be created for applications in specific industries, especially in the life-science, retail, healthcare, supply chain, telecommunication, and financial services sectors.
The Future of the RPA Industry and Evolution of RPAaaS
RPA is making waves in all sorts of industries, but this is especially apt when thinking about healthcare. Moreover, robotic process automation is also expected to become one of the most important IT solutions as years go on.
When deployed effectively, this unique technology can offer huge advancements in strategy making and business efficiency.
Within the next few years, it’s expected that robotic process automation as a service (RPAaaS) will go mainstream and be accessible for all companies who need it. This could help businesses cut down on the costs associated with deployment and development by using only the most impactful and reusable components.