Optimizing Healthcare Workflows: The Not-So-Obvious Benefits

Optimizing healthcare workflows has both obvious and not-so-obvious benefits.

By Medecision

When optimizing healthcare workflows, there are several obvious benefits. Optimization reduces the administrative burden on healthcare professionals, supports timely clinical decision-making, and allows care management teams to spend more time on high-priority, high-touch care.

But there are also some not-so-obvious benefits of automating or otherwise optimizing healthcare workflows. Here are just a few of them.

• It reduces the wait times consumers experience. Speeding up response times for services, approvals like prior authorizations, and referrals can improve the consumer experience and translate into more positive scores on customer satisfaction surveys like CAHPS. Faster turnaround times can also lead to customers feeling appreciated and respected, which can impact brand loyalty and advocacy. According to a Forrester report, 64% of customers who indicated they felt respected by their health plan said they plan to stay with their plan and 84% said they would advocate for the brand.
• It improves the performance of customer service teams. An optimized customer support workflow, including efficient ticket sorting and routing, helps customer service teams resolve issues quickly and effectively. This has the added benefit of improving consumer experiences and related scores. As reported by Fierce Healthcare, when Forrester polled members of 17 of the largest health plans in the U.S., they analyzed six categories that impact customer experience. Their researchers found that “drivers relating to how well customer service reps solve problems have the most impact on an insurer’s overall CX Index score.”
• It helps reduce healthcare professional burnout. In healthcare settings, it often feels like there aren’t enough hours in a day. But that feeling is compounded when you have to work longer hours or work harder to accomplish tasks that could have been streamlined by optimizing healthcare workflows. Introducing automation and other operational efficiencies through industry-leading healthcare solutions and advanced workflow strategies can ease unnecessary burdens on frontline workers and reduce healthcare professional burnout.

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