Implementing RPA In SingHealth

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TAKEAWAYS

• Robotic process automation (RPA) has helped to alleviate administrative workload challenges at SingHealth, enabling its staff to make better use of their time to elevate patient care.
• Proper training is essential, to ensure that staff have the competencies to incorporate RPA into their work processes.
• The use of technology has helped to decrease the stress levels among staff; it has also increased their job satisfaction.

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In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers continue to be challenged by heavy workloads and competing demands. Healthcare organisations are seeking innovative ways to ensure that their workforce is well prepared to cope with the ever-changing nature of the industry, and to provide quality care even in the face of manpower constraints.

SingHealth harnesses technology to alleviate administrative workload challenges as part of its bid to futureproof its workforce, allowing its people to make better use of their time to elevate patient care.

Enter robotic process automation (RPA). RPA is a digital solution that relieves workers from manual, repetitive, and rule-based tasks. By automating these tasks, staff can allocate their time to activities that are value-adding.

RPA works by using robots that are programmed to replicate various human actions, which can be integrated with different applications and software systems. Some of the tasks that RPA robots can perform are integration, file and date manipulation, data extraction and transaction processing.

At SingHealth Finance, a team led by Singapore General Hospital (SGH) and KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) staff has embraced the use of Blue Prism, an enterprise RPA solution, for payment posting, billing and claims processing. With the use of RPA, SingHealth’s Business Office has automated processes such as MediSave claims at SGH, KKH, Changi General Hospital (CGH), Sengkang General Hospital (SKH), National Health Centre Singapore (NHCS) and SingHealth Community Hospitals (SCH).

ALIGNING SERVICE AND WORKFORCE PLANS THROUGH STAFF DEVELOPMENT

In preparation for the rollout of RPA, SingHealth’s Business Office had worked with stakeholders including Blue Prism and national healthtech agency Synapxe to better understand the needs of staff, and the competencies required to support the adoption of RPA.

Over a span of 18 months, workshops, discussion meetings, user acceptance testing, on-the-job training and development activities were carried out to ensure staff understood how to incorporate RPA into their work processes.

“Employing RPA optimises the submission process, especially when managing substantial adjustments,” shares Lye Foon Mei, Senior Patient Service Associate Executive, Business Office, KKH. “As the time required for manual submissions is minimised, it allows me to allocate my attention to other responsibilities,” she says.

REDUCING WORKLOAD AND INCREASING JOB SATISFACTION

The benefits of RPA implementation in SingHealth’s Business Office are apparent, with an estimated 4,300 work hours saved every year. Additionally, it helps to decrease the stress levels and increase job satisfaction for staff, who now have more time to focus on more fulfilling and value-adding work; this in turn enhances their personal development and growth.

“Monitoring submission deadlines and determining submission types used to demand our constant attention,” explains Khng Li Juan, Business Office Executive, Patient Financial Services, SGH. “While some aspects still require manual intervention, 90% of the workload has been lifted from our team. We can use the time saved to focus on urgent tasks, and also to refine the bot to achieve complete process automation,” she says.

OPENING DOORS FOR FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS TO WORK PROCESSES

“Staff were initially sceptical on how RPA could help them. Over time, they started to appreciate that RPA has helped to cut down on the time spent toggling between two billing systems to extract, for example, MediSave Maternity Package claims amount accurately,” says Shirley Loh, Assistant Manager, Patient Financial Services, SGH.

Moving forward, there are plans to roll out RPA projects to more SingHealth institutions, including Singapore National Eye Centre, National Cancer Centre of Singapore, National Dental Centre Singapore, and SingHealth Polyclinics, enabling these institutions to benefit from automation. The adoption of RPA in SingHealth is one of the many ways it continues to seek improvements in its daily operations, to improve the experience for both its patients and staff.

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Lee Hui Quan is Deputy Director, Business Office, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH); Wong Kwok Kian is Assistant Director, Business Office, Singapore General Hospital; and Renuka Segaran is Senior Executive, Business Office, KKH.