Streamlining High-Volume Patient Management with Automation: Scheduling, Notes, and Billing Simplified

CLIENT OVERVIEW

Practice Better is an all-in-one electronic health record (EHR) and practice management platform designed for health and wellness professionals. It offers a comprehensive suite of tools to streamline administrative tasks, enhance client engagement, and support business growth.

Key Features:

Client Portal: A secure platform where clients can access resources, track progress, and communicate with practitioners.
Scheduling: Automated appointment booking and reminders to reduce no-shows and optimize time management.
Invoicing and Billing: Integrated billing solutions that simplify payment processing and financial tracking.
Telehealth Capabilities: Secure video conferencing for remote consultations, ensuring continuity of care.
Program and Course Creation: Tools to develop and sell online programs, expanding service offerings beyond one-on-one sessions.
Integrations: Compatibility with various third-party applications to enhance functionality and workflow efficiency.

By automating routine tasks and providing a centralized platform for client interactions, Practice Better enables practitioners to focus more on delivering quality care and less on administrative duties.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Providers face significant challenges with managing patient interactions, documentation, and scheduling in high-volume environments. On average, providers review over 200 patients per day, and the current manual processes for generating notes, invoicing, modifying care plans, and scheduling appointments result in inefficiencies and delays. These challenges impact patient satisfaction and operational effectiveness. Below is an overview of these key challenges and the automation needs for each area:

Generate Patient Notes

In their daily routines, providers are required to create comprehensive patient notes for each appointment. This involves reviewing prior notes, checking user manual entries, and including details such as the History of Present Illness (HPI), Past Medical History (PMH), and Assessment and Plan. Given the fixed time slots for appointments, the process of note creation becomes time-consuming, which often results in delayed schedules. Providers frequently struggle to keep up with appointment times, leading to poor patient experiences, negative reviews, and, at times, a loss of clientele. Automated solutions that streamline the note-generation process by pulling relevant information from previous notes and patient records are essential to help providers maintain schedule adherence and improve patient interactions.

Invoicing

Each patient visit with a provider requires an invoice to be sent promptly following the appointment. Currently, this is a manual process that must be done in real-time, in between appointments, making it challenging for providers to manage within the limited time before the next session begins. Automating the invoicing process, allowing providers to issue invoices with a single click, would reduce delays, save valuable time, and minimize manual effort. This approach would enhance the efficiency of billing processes, ensuring accurate and timely invoicing without disrupting the provider’s daily workflow.

Plan Modification

During patient appointments, providers often encounter situations where patients are interested in additional services or packages, such as purchasing a one-time package, modifying payment plans, or placing a one-time order. This requires creating unique invoices, extending payment schedules, and managing orders based on the patient’s preferences and the duration of the plan. The current manual process for handling these modifications is time-intensive and prone to errors. Automating plan modifications can help providers swiftly adapt to patient needs, streamline billing processes, and improve patient satisfaction.

Appointment Scheduling

Scheduling appointments based on provider availability is an increasingly complex task, especially for high patient volumes. Coordinating time slots for hundreds of patients daily creates logistical challenges and disrupts providers’ schedules. Automating the scheduling process to match patients with available time slots based on provider availability and patient needs is essential for managing high-volume appointments. Implementing scalable scheduling architecture would allow for seamless, efficient management of appointments, enhancing both patient and provider experiences.

Payment Plan Creation

Payment plans address clients’ need for flexible payment options, making it easier for them to commit to high-value, long-term services without the stress of large upfront costs. This approach allows practitioners to expand their client base, improve accessibility to services, and maintain consistent cash flow.The manual creation of payment plans for patients is a time-consuming process, typically requiring approximately 15 minutes per patient. During this time, providers must calculate installment amounts, determine payment schedules, and ensure that each plan aligns with the patient’s treatment timeline. Due to the repetitive and detailed nature of the task, providers may occasionally overlook creating the plan altogether. This can result in significant issues, such as:

Medication Discontinuation: Without an active payment plan, patients may be unable to continue receiving essential medications due to a lapse in billing or service continuity.
Patient Dissatisfaction: When payment plans are delayed or overlooked, patients may experience stress and dissatisfaction due to unexpected gaps in their treatment or access to medications.

SOLUTION

To resolve these issues, providers require an automation solution that can streamline the generation of patient notes (including HPI, PMH, Assessment, and Plan), automate invoicing, manage plan modifications, and facilitate efficient appointment scheduling. Addressing these needs will help providers maintain timely patient interactions, reduce manual effort, and improve operational efficiency, ultimately enhancing the overall quality of care and patient satisfaction.

1. Initial Assessment:

1. Automated Patient Note Generation:

The solution will facilitate the creation of comprehensive patient notes that include History of Present Illness (HPI), Past Medical History (PMH), and the Assessment and Plan. By integrating with patient records and past notes, the automation will ensure providers have easy access to relevant information, significantly reducing the time required for documentation and allowing them to adhere to scheduled appointment times. This will improve provider efficiency, reduce scheduling delays, and enhance the patient experience.

2. Instant Invoicing:

Automating the invoicing process will enable providers to generate and send invoices immediately after each patient session, eliminating the manual delays currently experienced. With a one-click invoicing feature, providers can seamlessly issue accurate invoices, reducing the administrative burden and improving the overall billing experience for both providers and patients.

3. Flexible Plan Modification:

The solution will support quick, adaptable modifications to patient care plans. This includes the creation of single-use invoices, extension of payment plans, and generation of one-time orders as needed based on patient interest and plan duration. By automating these modifications, the solution will enable providers to respond swiftly to patient needs, streamline payment processes, and deliver a more personalized experience.

4. Efficient Appointment Scheduling:

To address the complexities of managing high patient volumes, the solution will automate appointment scheduling based on provider availability and patient preferences. This will minimize the logistical burden on providers and ensure that appointments are effectively coordinated without manual intervention. By implementing a scalable scheduling architecture, the solution will enhance time management, reduce scheduling conflicts, and improve overall efficiency.

5. Creation and Scheduling of Payment Plans

Using Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to automate payment plan creation can eliminate the time-consuming, manual tasks that providers face, ensuring a more efficient workflow. The bot can retrieve patient and service details from the EHR system, automatically calculate installment amounts and schedules, and input this data into the practice management or billing software.

2. Automation Development:

An automated bot was developed using UiPath to streamline patient note generation and invoicing within the Practice Better EHR system. Here’s an overview of the process:

Patient Note Generation

Login to Practice Better EHR: The bot begins by logging into the Practice Better Electronic Health Record (EHR) platform.
Retrieve Today’s Appointment Details: It fetches details of all patients scheduled for appointments on the current date.
Navigate to Patient Profiles: The bot accesses each patient’s profile to gather necessary information.
Retrieve Existing Notes or Intake Information: For each patient, it first checks for any existing notes. If a prior note is available, it retrieves relevant information from there. If no previous note exists, it gathers information from the patient’s intake form.
Generate a New Progress Note: Using the collected information, the bot creates a comprehensive progress note tailored to the upcoming patient visit, ensuring that the provider has all essential details readily available.

Invoicing

Once the progress note is generated, the provider has the option to send an invoice immediately. To facilitate this:

Invoice Trigger Extension: A custom extension was added to the Practice Better platform, allowing providers to initiate the invoicing process with a single click.
Automated Invoice Generation and Delivery: When the provider clicks the invoicing extension button, it triggers the invoicing bot. This bot automatically generates an invoice based on the appointment details and promptly sends it to the patient.

Appointment Scheduling

Provider Submits Patient Details: The healthcare provider supplies the necessary patient details required for scheduling. This includes patient identifiers, contact information, and any relevant notes for the appointment.

Automated Login to Practice Better: Once the bot receives the patient information, it securely logs into the Practice Better Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. This ensures seamless integration with the platform, enabling real-time access to the provider’s availability.
Identify Available Appointment Slots and Schedule: The bot checks the provider’s calendar within Practice Better to identify open appointment slots. It selects an available time based on the specified duration of the appointment, taking into account both the provider’s schedule and any additional criteria provided. Once an optimal slot is identified, the bot schedules the appointment directly in Practice Better and confirms the booking.
This automated process eliminates manual scheduling, ensures accuracy, and allows providers to focus on patient care without the administrative burden of managing their calendars.
Payment Plan Creation
Once the invoice is generated, the bot calculates the payment plan amount based on the specific plan selected by the patient.
The bot determines installment amounts, payment frequency, and the overall duration of the plan.
The payment plan is scheduled to begin immediately after the invoice due date, with recurring payments set across the designated long-term period.
This automated setup ensures that payment plans align with patient preferences and start seamlessly after the invoice, maintaining consistent billing.
By automating this process, the bot prevents delays, reduces the risk of missed payments, and minimizes the chance of treatment interruptions, ensuring a smooth experience for both patients and providers.

Customization:

The bot was integrated with the existing “Practice Better” system to update patient records and appointment details in real-time. This integration allows healthcare providers and administrators to track patient appointments, progress notes, and other essential information seamlessly. By automating the flow of data between the scheduling system and patient records, the bot ensures that all patient interactions, including updates to progress notes and invoicing, are accurately logged and immediately available for review. This real-time update functionality improves the efficiency of the healthcare team, reduces administrative overhead, and enhances the overall patient care process.

RESULTS

1. Significant Time Reduction:

Patient Note Generation: Automating the process of creating patient notes reduced the time spent on documentation by up to 40-50%, allowing providers to complete notes more quickly and move on to the next patient without delays.
Invoicing: The invoicing process, which previously required manual entry for each patient, is now streamlined with a single-click solution, reducing invoice processing time by 60-70%.
Appointment Scheduling: Automated appointment scheduling eliminated manual coordination, reducing the time spent on this task by 50-60%, ensuring that providers can review more patients within the same timeframe.

2. Improved Operational Efficiency:

By reducing manual administrative tasks, the solution allowed providers to allocate more time to patient care, increasing their overall productivity and improving workflow management.
The ability to manage up to 200+ patient appointments daily with minimal delays and scheduling conflicts contributed to better time utilization and reduced bottlenecks in the clinic.

3. Increased Patient Satisfaction:

On-Time Appointments: The reduction in note generation and scheduling delays led to more on-time appointments, improving patient satisfaction and reducing waiting times.
Fewer Errors: Automating invoicing and plan modifications resulted in fewer manual errors, ensuring patients received accurate bills and care plans without confusion.
Faster Response to Plan Modifications: The ability to quickly adapt care plans and offer additional packages in real-time enhanced patient engagement, as providers could offer timely, personalized solutions during appointments.

4. Enhanced Client Retention:

As a result of streamlined processes and improved patient care, providers received better patient reviews, leading to stronger client retention and a more positive reputation in the community.
The time savings and improved service quality contributed to fewer patient complaints and reduced turnover rates

5. Reduction in Administrative Costs:

By automating key processes such as note generation, invoicing, and scheduling, the practice experienced lower operational costs, as fewer resources were needed to handle manual tasks.
Providers and administrative staff could focus on more valuable, patient-centric activities, leading to better resource allocation and cost efficiency.

6. Scalable and Sustainable Growth:

The solution’s scalability allowed the practice to efficiently manage increasing patient volumes without compromising on service quality. This has set the stage for future growth without requiring additional administrative hires or resources.
Better Compliance and Documentation:

7. Better Compliance and Documentation:

With automation in note-taking, the solution ensured that all required documentation, such as HPI, PMH, Assessment, and Plan, was consistently captured, improving clinical documentation compliance and supporting better patient outcomes.

8. Provider Satisfaction:

Providers reported a significant reduction in stress and administrative workload, resulting in higher job satisfaction and better work-life balance. By automating repetitive tasks, they could focus more on patient care and less on paperwork.

CLIENT TESTIMONIAL

KEY TAKEAWAYS: –

Automation Streamlined Documentation and Billing: By automating the generation of patient notes, invoicing, and plan modifications, the solution eliminated the need for manual processes, allowing providers to focus on delivering quality care. The integration of patient records and automated note creation reduced time spent on documentation, resulting in improved efficiency and better time management.The bot ensured consistency and reduced errors, leading to better inventory management.
Consistency and Accuracy in Billing: The automation of invoicing ensured that invoices were generated promptly and accurately, reducing errors and delays. This led to smoother billing cycles, enhanced accuracy in financial transactions, and improved patient satisfaction, as providers could issue invoices with just one click, saving time and reducing administrative workload.
Improved Appointment Scheduling and Workflow Efficiency: The automated appointment scheduling system effectively coordinated appointments based on provider availability and patient needs, eliminating scheduling conflicts and reducing administrative overhead. This enhanced overall workflow efficiency, minimized operational delays, and ensured that providers could manage a high volume of patients seamlessly, leading to a more organized and efficient practice.

If your organization faces similar challenges in managing repetitive tasks in inventory or patient data, consider implementing an automated solution to improve efficiency, accuracy, and cash flow. Contact us today to explore how we can tailor an RPA solution to meet your needs.