In the USA and the world over, the healthcare system is underneath excessive stress resulting from a scarcity of healthcare professionals and rising workloads. The quantity of the work that huge hospitals carry out merely makes scaling this mannequin for the longer term out of the query. The one viable approach of tackling these challenges is to make the system extra environment friendly by means of automation. That’s the reason healthcare-focused SaaS platforms have seen exponential development previously few years. 

ServiceNow is a workflow automation SaaS platform that allows companies to get their work finished quicker and in less complicated methods. With ServiceNow healthcare workflows, hospitals and different healthcare organizations can enhance affected person care whereas lowering their operational prices. 

On this weblog, we are going to talk about 5 widespread challenges confronted by hospitals that ServiceNow consulting services can repair. However earlier than that, we wish to undergo some background concerning the want for IT options within the healthcare business. 

The pressing want for workflow automation in healthcare 

Healthcare is chronically understaffed in the meanwhile. You most likely have an concept about that your self from the information concerning the UK’s crumbling NHS through the COVID-19 pandemic. However the pandemic solely uncovered a long-standing drawback, which many international locations internationally are grappling with. In line with McKinsey, fixing healthcare employee scarcity may eradicate 7% of the worldwide illness burden and add $1.1 trillion to the worldwide financial system. 

However what’s the rationale behind this disaster? It’s a hydra-headed drawback with many sides, corresponding to: 

1. Getting old inhabitants 

To place it merely, there’s a provide and demand imbalance in healthcare. Beginning charges are dropping, and the inhabitants is getting older.  There are merely not sufficient younger folks coming into the workforce to deal with the aged and the sick, particularly those that require particular care and therapy. 

2. Poor wages 

Healthcare is a really noble, altruistic career, but it surely’s not all the time probably the most well-paid one. The wages of nurses, medical doctors, and paramedics have stagnated through the years. Governments have additionally lower a lot of their funding for healthcare initiatives. In consequence, many younger individuals are dissuaded from pursuing a profession in healthcare.  

3. Overwork and burnout 

Many nurses, medical doctors, and help workers are retiring early or leaving the career altogether due to burnout, trauma, and continual stress, which comes with working within the business. Nevertheless, this was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic the place they needed to work taxing quantities of extra time, usually underneath poor working situations.  

On account of these and another points, automation is the necessity of the hour within the healthcare business. Automating workflows reduces human inefficiencies and permits healthcare suppliers to pay attention extra on affected person care. That’s the reason ServiceNow healthcare IT options could make advanced affected person care processes less complicated for everybody, together with sufferers, caregivers, and directors.  

Understanding ServiceNow in healthcare 

Based in 2004, ServiceNow has huge plans and has made its mark in lots of industries. It already led the ITSM house, however this 12 months, they launched ServiceNow CRM to problem Salesforce’s longstanding supremacy. ServiceNow options for healthcare suppliers embody each devoted suites and different ServiceNow modules.  

Right here is an summary of the whole lot accessible in ServiceNow for healthcare: 

1. ServiceNow Healthcare and Life Sciences (HCLS) 

ServiceNow HCLS is the core healthcare suite for healthcare suppliers and payers. It’s constructed across the idea of linked healthcare as a result of the HCLS module hyperlinks all components of the healthcare expertise to enhance affected person care.  

For hospitals, it has the Healthcare Operations (HCO) answer to enhance day-to-day operations, corresponding to mattress administration workflows and working room turnover. And Healthcare Supplier Service Administration (HPSM) is the patient-facing and medical help function.  

To allow constant, unified information throughout workflows, ServiceNow HCLS offers a knowledge mannequin that makes use of a mix of tables to retailer information, corresponding to: 

• Affected person information 
• Supplier profiles 
• Care groups 
• Encounter historical past 

2. Different IT options for hospitals 

ServiceNow ITSM is the platform’s most established footprint in healthcare to this point. Historically, healthcare wasn’t a discipline that embraced IT modifications quickly. Understandably, since you’re coping with human lives, with so many regulatory checks and balances. 

However regulators have lastly given the inexperienced gentle to automation with clear pointers. ServiceNow healthcare workflows use its ITSM and different modules to modernize completely different IT operations in hospitals. 

5 widespread hospital challenges solved by ServiceNow in healthcare 

Behind the concord and tranquility of hospitals, so much is happening to maintain the whole lot so as. Massive hospitals carry out hundreds of surgical procedures in a 12 months; their ICUs and emergency departments are all the time stuffed, and if one thing goes incorrect, such because the outbreak of a pandemic, the scenes may be apocalyptic.  

On this part, we’ll record 5 widespread challenges that hospitals usually must take care of, and the way ServiceNow healthcare workflows can resolve them. 

1. Each day operational inefficiencies  

Healthcare organizations run 24/7, one year a 12 months. A whole lot of actions are taking place all through the day and evening, corresponding to: 

• Affected person transport 
• Room cleansing 
• Discharge duties 
• Gear requests 

Dealing with these myriad operations by means of separate channels like telephone calls or paperwork is inefficient. And in lots of instances, it places the affected person or their family in undesirable misery. When somebody’s liked one is within the ICU, the very last thing they need is to fill in some paperwork. 

ServiceNow HCO automates and manages these each day operations for hospitals. These ServiceNow healthcare options flip all scattered duties into automated digital workflows. As an alternative of misplaced requests and unclear tasks, each exercise follows a structured digital workflow seen to all related groups. 

2. Fragmented medical and administrative information 

There are often many IT techniques used inside hospitals, from lab software program to digital well being information (EHRs). Most of them are constructed independently by separate distributors. In consequence, hospital workers usually discover themselves switching between screens or calling different departments simply to examine the standing of a request. This fragmentation slows the whole lot down and will increase the chance of errors. 

ServiceNow healthcare options, like ServiceNow HCLS and Integration Hub, mitigate this problem. The HCLS module manages cross-departmental workflows, whereas Integration Hub connects ServiceNow with EHRs. It creates a ServiceNow healthcare information mannequin that’s bidirectional to bridge medical and non-clinical processes. 

Moreover, specialist or area of interest healthcare organizations, like dementia care clinics, can rent ServiceNow Developers to create customized workflows utilizing App Engine to match their distinctive operational wants.  

Such ServiceNow options for healthcare suppliers assist medical doctors, nurses, administrative workers, and help groups to work collectively on a unified system.  

3. Poor affected person expertise and communication 

It’s now empirically confirmed that the bodily restoration of sufferers is linked with their psychological and emotional well-being. They should be given each comfort doable to hurry up their restoration. But many hospitals nonetheless rely closely on handbook communication procedures. Sufferers are left ready for solutions, and workers spend vital time fielding repetitive inquiries. Poor communication turns into one of many greatest ache factors within the affected person’s journey. 

ServiceNow healthcare workflows use ServiceNow CSM to deal with this difficulty. CSM provides Affected person Service Middle, and AI-powered Digital Agent as a part of its healthcare options. These instruments permit hospitals to supply self-service portals, real-time updates, and smarter routing of affected person requests. Sufferers can examine standing updates, submit questions, or obtain reminders with out ever needing to make a name.  

Hospitals, in flip, scale back their workload whereas enhancing satisfaction and engagement at each step of the care course of. 

4. IT service administration reliability points 

Whereas IT options for the healthcare business have seen an upward development, healthcare IT service administration (ITSM) is a distinct subdomain. Conventional ITSM platforms usually wrestle with healthcare IT bottlenecks, which disrupts care supply and places medical operations in danger.  

However ServiceNow provides ITSM, ITOM, and CMDB modules with a particular give attention to healthcare. ServiceNow ITSM automates and organizes service requests, whereas ITOM helps detect potential points earlier than they affect customers.  

Lastly, CMDB maintains an correct stock of all units and techniques. Collectively, these ServiceNow healthcare options assist hospitals scale back downtime and guarantee expertise doesn’t turn out to be a hindrance of their work.  

5. Compliance and information safety dangers 

Hospitals are among the many most closely regulated and steadily focused environments on this planet. They have to adjust to frameworks like HIPAA, HITRUST, and GDPR. Furthermore, within the digital age, additionally they have to deal with cybersecurity threats concerning delicate affected person information. Normally, compliance actions are managed by means of spreadsheets or handbook processes, which expose healthcare organizations to pointless danger. 

On this high-risk atmosphere, ServiceNow healthcare workflows present higher safety in opposition to such threats. ServiceNow’s Governance, Danger, and Compliance (GRC) and Safety Operations (SecOps) modules convey automation, construction, and real-time visibility to compliance and safety. Hospitals can robotically log audit actions, monitor dangers, handle insurance policies, and reply to safety incidents extra successfully.  

Vendor danger assessments, inside controls, and incident investigations all turn out to be centralized. This allows hospitals to strengthen their safety posture and reply quicker when a problem arises. 

Conclusion 

Healthcare is at a turning level. The pressures dealing with hospitals as we speak gained’t disappear on their very own. What can change, nonetheless, is the way in which healthcare organizations function.  

ServiceNow healthcare workflows supply hospitals a better approach ahead. The platform provides healthcare suppliers the instruments they should hold tempo with demand whereas elevating the affected person expertise.  

At Xavor, we assist hospitals and healthcare organizations modernize with ServiceNow healthcare workflows. Our ServiceNow consulting companies focus on implementing platform-specific applied sciences, significantly for healthcare organizations. 

Contact us at [email protected] if you happen to’re able to discover how ServiceNow can digitally rework your healthcare setup.