What to Automate? and the Benefits of RPA in the NHS
Summary:
What to Automate in the NHS? The Benefits of Intelligent Automation (RPA) explores how Intelligent Automation (IA), also known as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), can enhance patient care by handling repetitive, rule-based tasks. This allows healthcare professionals to focus on higher-value activities, improving efficiency, accuracy, and job satisfaction.
IA in the NHS typically delivers value through two models: reducing costs by decreasing manual roles (cash-out) or freeing staff time for more meaningful work (time-release). However, automation’s impact depends on how it's implemented. Automating a single task in a diverse role may only release a small portion of time, limiting benefits unless applied across entire workflows.
Approaches to IA vary in structure.
Ad hoc automation is reactive and inefficient, while opportunistic automation targets quick wins but risks inconsistent results. A more effective strategy is Total Workflow Automation, which aims to automate 60% or more of a team's tasks, enabling scalable improvements. Value-Based Process Selection focuses on automating high-return processes that have already been mapped and analysed, ensuring a strong financial and operational impact.
"Gold Mining" refers to systematically identifying the most valuable, automatable processes through feasibility and ROI analysis, helping to prioritise implementations that maximise benefits.
IA significantly boosts operational performance by streamlining administrative tasks, reducing errors, improving data security, and accelerating workflows. It also introduces the concept of Automated Work Hours (AWH)—time saved by automation—which can be redirected toward patient care. For example, 12,000 AWH equates to 1,600 working days reclaimed annually, representing a major shift in capacity and productivity.
Quality of life for healthcare professionals improves as automation reduces stress from mundane tasks, allowing for better work-life balance, personal development, and reduced burnout. These benefits contribute directly to improved patient experiences and outcomes.
Specific areas within Berkshire Healthcare already benefiting from IA include:
- Referral Processes: Streamlined self-referrals and primary care referrals ensure faster access to services and better coordination between providers.
- Discharge Processes: Automating discharge planning and follow-up reduces errors, improves continuity of care, and lowers readmission rates.
- Patient Contact: Appointment reminders, medication alerts, and updates keep patients informed and engaged in their care.
- Support Services: IA optimises functions in IT, finance, procurement, and admin, improving accuracy and efficiency.
- Human Resources: Recruitment, onboarding, training, performance management, and exit processes are faster, more accurate, and less resource-intensive through automation.
Rather than building automation from scratch for each process, existing pathways can be adapted, making implementation faster, cheaper, and more impactful. This approach also revitalises outdated workflows.
Conclusion:
Intelligent Automation or RPA is a strategic asset for the NHS, offering significant gains in efficiency, accuracy, staff wellbeing, and patient outcomes. By targeting high-value processes and scaling automation effectively, healthcare organisations can unlock substantial benefits, making IA a vital component of modern, sustainable healthcare delivery.