IT in health: the importance of automation for the sector
The digital transformation that has been taking place for decades makes the world increasingly technological and automated. With that, technological innovations bring significant changes to processes at every moment, facilitating work methodologies. In terms of health, it would be no different.
Information technology (IT) in health is a relatively new topic, but many institutions have become aware of What are the advantages of automation and digital document management have brought it to business, allowing for advances that were not possible before.
We are passionate about technology and, in this post, we will show you the importance of IT in health and how automation brings positive returns to the management of clinics and hospitals. Shall we go?
What is IT in healthcare?
When we talk about IT in health, we are relating everything investment that is made in technologies for the improvement of processes related to health, in any environment, from hospitals, laboratories and clinics.
Technology is present from the reception to the delivery of results and diagnoses, through all the health and administrative processes that govern management. With the effective management of IT in health, it is possible to reduce costs, optimize processes and increase revenue.
How can technology improve health?
As we said before, technology and its innovations improve processes and make the routine of patients, professionals, hospitals, and clinics more practical and simple.
The use of artificial intelligence (AI), for example, can provide more convenient and personalized care to patients and create substantially more value for the sector as a whole — up to US$ 410 billion a year by 2025 - especially after the acceleration of the digitization of processes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
With that in mind, we have separated some technological evolutions that have been making the difference:
Cloud Computing
It is the service that allows you to store data from the systems in the cloud. With the digitization of documents increasingly constant, it is a technology that brings more control and greater organization to documents, in addition to storing them more securely.
In addition, it is a great opportunity to save physical space in an organized manner. We recommend reading our article with All about digitizing documents, so you can understand more about the advantages of this process.
Big Data
It is the expression that is used for the analysis and interpretation of a large volume of data to assist in decision-making.
All the information collected can be used in some way by the institution: to generate reports, predict scenarios, identify gaps and so many other indicators. Doing so without the support of technology can be a herculean job.
Scheduling appointments
With more appropriate software, health institutions can schedule online and streamline service processes, identify the flow of care (how many patients were treated and how many are missing, for example).
Imagine identifying all of this on a paper list? It wouldn't be feasible and we would still be passive to possible human errors, loss of records, and more.
Equipment automation
The technology also brought more modern equipment that offers professionals more autonomy and faster diagnoses, also eliminating the possibilities of human errors and changes in results.
telemedicine
Telemedicine has been increasingly used, as doctors are already consulting and even following surgical procedures remotely, bringing the relationship of trust between doctor and patient closer.
Online exam results, prescriptions, and certificates
With digital signature technology, hospitals and clinics can issue documents online with digital certification, bringing more speed and security to processes. Doctors, for example, can issue digital prescriptions and facilitate communication with their patients.
Count on a solution that provides a reliable digital signature, makes these legal signature processes for online documents much easier.
Clicksign developed a software that offers a digital signature with legal validation. With it, you choose the document and the forms of authentication and send the signature by e-mail or SMS, with or without digital certification. If you are interested in learning more about the solution, talk to our team!
These are some examples of how technology has been facilitating the digital management of hospitals and clinics, however, there is another process that has been gaining space in the health area and has attracted the eyes of managers: hospital automation.
What is hospital automation?
As we said before, investment in IT brings benefits for both the patient and the professional. And hospital automation is largely responsible for making processes easier and more fluid in hospitals, precisely for optimizing processes and streamlining the way in which routines are executed.
In this regard, a variety of smart devices have the potential to provide support to healthcare professionals. For example, voice technology could help transcribe clinical data, which would mean less administrative work for health professionals, giving them more time to focus on patient care.
Virtual assistants are expected to take off in the next decade. In fact, the market for virtual health assistants is projected to reach US$ 2.8 billion by 2027, with a CAGR of 27% .
What is the importance of computerization and automation in hospitals and clinics?
Companies that operate in the health segment and do not modernize are left behind, as technology is evolving more and more and allowing companies to differentiate themselves in the market.
Below are the main advantages of investing in automated processes in hospitals and clinics, which bring benefits to everyone.
Patient care
Automation processes offer greater agility in identifying patients and registering, which provides a good perception of the patient regarding care.
In addition, being able to receive digitally signed recipes, certificates, and results online is something that makes patients' lives easier and increases their satisfaction with the institution.
Information security
Technology guarantees greater information security. With digital certification, for example, patients are able to validate medical documents and reports and certify their veracity.
In addition to data protection security and the LGPD, with digital certification, the health institution achieves prove that the results generated in the laboratory are real, providing more security against fraud and scams by malicious patients.
Agility in hiring processes
Imagine the rush inside hospitals and clinics, and the volume of people that circulate there every day.
With process automation and digital document management, it is possible toExpedite contract signatures with employees, suppliers, and patients in a few clicks. No more paperwork and wasted time!
Employee productivity
While an employee needed to do all the service steps manually, with computerized processes, less time is required for this: the manager can count on him to serve more people in less time, improving the service flow.
Cost optimization
By digitizing documents and automated processes, the hospital or clinic stops spending on a large volume of paper, printer ink, electricity... It's a process gain and resource savings!
Artificial intelligence when reading documents
Artificial intelligence in reading documents verifies and extracts information from these files, in a fast and automated way, and brings benefits to institutions. To learn more, we recommend reading the article artificial intelligence and digital documents, check it out.
Digital document management: what is it?
Finally, we couldn't talk about hospital and clinic automation, without talking about digital document management. Electronic document management (GED) is a system that offers monitored access to all of an institution's documents, and stores digitized files in the cloud, ensuring total access control and security.
This methodology makes it easy to find documents with just a few clicks. Imagine a routine where you need to find documents filed on paper, the job that would be? This process makes the routine much easier.
We have separated a complete article that talks about Digital Transformation in Document Management and its benefits, be sure to see!
If you want to digitize your processes, as the main companies in the market do, in an applicable and legally valid manner, don't waste time and discover our Plans and Pricing.
