Digital productivity

Reducing inefficiencies using RPA

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a form of business process automation using software robots (also known as digital workers) that quickly and accurately interact with the “back end” and the “front end” of a system, meaning it’s able to mimic everything a human can do, such as opening documents, clicking, and typing, etc. RPA can run 24 hours a day, any day of the week, and allows data to be transacted between systems, databases, digital forms or even many Microsoft Office products. Think of automations like additional team members, here to support your existing team.

By automating stable, rule-based, repetitive processes that require standard input, you can repurpose the time otherwise spent, and fully focus on high-value or high priority activities, such as complex strategising, or face-to-face interactions. RPA can support many functions, and our team can help you understand which processes are likely to benefit from RPA.

The benefits of RPA

Robotic process automation has proven it can release health care professionals from administrative tasks and reduce operational costs. It can also improve quality and compliance using proactive record management. For example, used in HR and recruitment, it can increase efficiency by:

• Increasing the productivity of recruitment staff
• Reducing vacancies by filling positions faster and more efficiently, finding candidates quicker, and improving staff retention due to increased staff satisfaction and wellbeing
• Speeding up the onboarding process
• Reducing costs by lowering the need for temporary bank and agency staff

Identifying automation opportunities

Select processes that:

• Require improvement / could be better (like regular Master data file updates)
• Are time consuming or time critical (like repetitive monthly reports and procedures)
• Are high volume and frequent (like extracting, capturing, and filing data)
• Are logical and rules based (like matching up or alignment of data sets)

Identify where your team is:

• Gathering data from multiple sources / systems (like capturing new starter informationfrom their application)
• Transferring data from one system to another (like setting up a new starter across multiple systems)
• Checking data consistency (like checking you’ve entered the correct data)
• Updating identical data across multiple systems (like setting up new starters in various NHS systems)

RPA case studies

Selected to become an NHS Centre of Excellence (CoE), Northampton General Hospital’s Automation Accelerator programme has identified over 500 viable automation opportunities across multiple NHS organisations. The potential automation ideas are projected to repurpose around 115,000 hours per year - that’s over half a million hours over the next 5 years. This is expected to greatly increase as more Trusts work with the CoE.

Blackpool Teaching Hospitals streamlined and automated their new Single Point of Discharge (SPoD) service for hospital patients. The integrated solution allowed hospital nursing staff to make a single, simple referral to the SPoD where the patient is reviewed, triaged and signposted into the most appropriate downstream out-of-hospital service. As a result, they:

• Reduced rekeying of data between systems
• Improved referral quality and accuracy
• Reduced discharge delays
• Reductions in length of stay in hospital

West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust used robotic process automation (RPA) to streamline outpatient updates and e-prescribing by integrating kiosks with patient administrative systems (PAS) through a proof of concept. Processing around 500 appointments per day, the automation automatically updates the PAS with patient check-ins and any changes made. This released receptionists from manually transferring data between two systems, and saved clinicians time by automatically notifying them of patient arrivals.

RPA resources

If you work in the NHS, you can access resources about RPA on the Future NHS RPA Community of Practice. Examples of resources include:

• an introduction to RPA
• case studies and good practice guidance, providing you with tried and tested approaches
• guidance on how the technology should be used
• forums to connect and collaborate with peers

XR discovery: opportunities within the NHS

XR is an umbrella term for immersive technologies that blend the digital world with the real world. This can be on a small scale - like visual overlays that interact with your current, real environment - to entire simulated worlds. Examples of XR technologies include assisted reality, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR).

The digital productivity team has carried out discovery work to understand how the NHS and social care can safely use extended reality technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality, and maximise its benefits. This has helped us understand the current use of XR in health, identify current and future opportunity areas and inform guidance on the infrastructure needed to support this.

Our work involves generating real-world evidence for the NHS and managing a community that supports sharing of knowledge and best practice between health and care providers, technology suppliers and innovators, arms length bodies and research organisations. We have been collating evidence and insights to highlight the benefits of using virtual or extended reality to improve patient experience and reduce pressure on care, whilst building recommendations for good practice.

The benefits of XR

Our team has been working to understand the capabilities of XR, and its current use in the NHS and healthcare internationally. We found that XR was being used in a multitude of ways across the NHS and social care. The top four areas using XR were:

• Education and training for patients and staff
• Mental health and wellbeing
• Physiotherapy and rehabilitation
• Pain management

Other areas such as 3D visualisation of images or scans for pre-surgical planning, image guided surgeries and remote connections (for example for community nurses) were also mentioned.

The benefits associated with XR across these areas included:

• saving staff time
• improving staff experience
• increasing accessibility
• improving efficiency of services
• increased positive patient outcomes

These benefits align with key commitments outlined in the NHS 2022-23 business plan around delivery of more elective care, improving mental health services for everyone, and improving productivity across the health system.

XR case studies

There are multiple use cases and case studies that evidence the benefits and potential of XR across health and care, including some within the NHS. In 2019 Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust completed a study involving immersive VR treatment of children with autism related phobias, with results showing that nearly 45% of patients remained phobia free six months after treatment.

At East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust trainee doctors are using virtual reality training equipment to practise endoscopy skills in an immersive and realistic way. Teachers are able to accurately assess students’ progress with the aim of maximising patient safety in real operations.

NHS North Lincolnshire CCG has leveraged XR to improve the retention rates of patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD). This has boosted patients’ independence and enabled patients to be treated more quickly. The CCG also hopes that this technology will reduce hospital visits. You can find out more here about how NHS Lincolnshire CCG used virtual reality.

Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust’s Digital Futures programme allows staff to be exposed to digital technology and empowers them to develop their own digital solutions within patient pathways, to improve patient experience and support health outcomes. So far, this includes the use of mixed reality headsets for remote consultation for breast wound care, and virtual reality to distract from pain or anxiety in toenail removal surgery. This has saved the trust £40,000 a year compared to traditional delivery of care. The program is also developing digital solutions in adolescent mental health and intensive care rehabilitation pathways and remote multiple sclerosis consultations.

Improving standards of care and managing inventory using radio frequency identification (RFID)

RFID and RTLS can support health and care organisations with:

• medical device tracking
• stock and inventory management
• patient flow management

Key benefits identified by successful sites include lower costs - associated with reductions in waste, over ordering and lost items - improved patient and staff experience, and time saved.

RFID case studies

Passive radio frequency identification (RFID) tagging at East Kent Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has led to less time spent looking for medical devices, reduced delays to patient care, and improved employee and patient experience. You can read more here about how East Kent Hospitals used radio frequency identification.

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) has implemented medical equipment tracking using RFID. This enables automated reporting for clinical engineers and delivers significant time savings. The target for “average time taken to supply a device to a ward” was 30 minutes: the use of RFID has reduced this average to just 12 minutes, and audit times reduced from 90 minutes to just 8 minutes per ward. This efficiency has led to improved device utilisation and a better patient experience.