Healthcare Document Automation: Transitioning From Manual Processes to Document Automation Software

Research by the National Library of Medicine (NHI) shows that one in five patients who review their medical records find errors in diagnoses, test results and more, with 40 percent discovering serious mistakes. 

When copying data from Electronic Health Records (EHRs) into Excel or Word templates to create documents, errors do happen!

The worst part? Manual documentation increases the workload of already-stretched healthcare professionals, raising the likelihood of more mistakes, ultimately putting patients at risk and eroding trust in the healthcare system.

But with document automation, you can set up workflows to create healthcare documents automatically with little to no human intervention, promoting accuracy, consistency, and efficiency. While not all medical documents are suited for automation, many repetitive ones with standardized information like treatment invoices and consent forms are ideal. 

Keep reading to discover how document automation can improve healthcare outcomes, which documents you should automate, and how to start creating them immediately.

What is Document Automation for Healthcare?

Healthcare document automation uses software to streamline the creation, management, and distribution of healthcare-related documents. It works by extracting data from EHRs or other systems to fill variable template fields and generate, store, or deliver custom documents to pre-configured recipients or locations. 

Criteria for choosing documents for automation

As mentioned in the introduction, not all healthcare documents should be automated. Therefore, consider these three criteria to identify which documents are suitable for automation:

• Repetitive Workflow: Documents you process routinely are prime candidates for automation because they often follow the same workflow. For example, your hospital always generates a treatment invoice after a healthcare provider recommends a treatment plan. With this predictable workflow, you can set a trigger to automatically create a corresponding invoice whenever a provider documents specific services or procedures in a patient’s record. 
• Standard and Structured Information: This involves ensuring that a specific type of document follows the same format and layout each time it is created. For example, a consent form that consistently includes sections like "Patient Name," "Procedure," and "Signature" in the same order enables automated systems to locate and fill in the required information easily. Therefore, you should avoid automating documents that require subjective information, as variability in these documents can complicate the automation process and increase the likelihood of errors.
• High Volume: Setting up an automation system requires a significant initial time investment and often a monthly software subscription. Hence, it makes sense to automate documents you regularly create in bulk. For example, automating insurance claim forms would be the way to go because the volume would supplement the effort. However, if you automate documents that are not created frequently, you would be wasting resources required for the setup.

Which Medical Documents Can Be Automated?

Now that you understand the criteria to consider, here are some healthcare documents that qualify for automation:

Administrative forms and invoices

Administrative forms and invoices include billing forms, insurance claims, and treatment invoices. They often contain consistent fields like patient information, service codes, billing details, and payment instructions. Instead of staff manually entering this data, automation tools can pull data directly from EHRs or billing systems to generate accurate documents faster.

Appointment summaries

Also known as after-visit summaries, appointment summaries are essential for patient reference and continuity of care. They provide an overview of each visit, including the diagnosis, treatment plan, medications prescribed, and any follow-up recommendations. 

Instead of stressing physicians to manually type these summaries after noting the same details in the system during consultations, you can set up an automation that pulls this information from the record to create the summary. After creation, you can add a workflow to automatically save the summaries within the EHR or make them available to patients through a patient portal or secure email.

Consent forms and acknowledgments

Consent forms and acknowledgments cover everything from routine treatment consents to specialized procedure agreements and privacy acknowledgments. They are often filled out, reviewed, and signed before patients receive specific care or treatments. Handling this process manually can delay patient care, especially in an emergency.

Since these forms are typically standard templates, you can import them to a healthcare document automation tool like Docupilot, insert variable fields, and integrate with patient databases to automatically fill them with data like name, date of birth, and medical ID. To further streamline the workflow, you can route these forms for signing via email. 

Referral documents

Referral documents help patients move seamlessly from one provider to another, such as from a primary care physician to a specialist. However, these documents can take time to finalize due to different approval and signature requirements. Hence, besides automating the creation of these documents, you can also create a workflow that routes them to the appropriate signers, further speeding up the process.

Discharge summaries

Discharge summaries provide an overview of a patient's hospital stay, including their diagnosis, treatments, procedures, and post-discharge care instructions. With medical document automation solutions, you can create a template containing these sections and pull the information for each field from patient records, eliminating the need for manual entry that could cause omission. You can also add a workflow that sends them to the patient or their primary care provider’s email.

Note: Medical document automation isn't limited to patient-related documents; it also encompasses staff documents, such as new hire acceptance letters and onboarding materials. 

What are the Benefits of Healthcare Document Automation? 

The benefits of automating healthcare documents with medical document automation solution include:

Enhanced accuracy and consistency

A core advantage of document automation for healthcare is the reduction of human errors associated with manual data entry, as experienced by Akanksha Kulkarni, a Registered Dietician Nutritionist (RDN) at Prowise Healthcare with 17 years of experience.

In her role, she is responsible for completing patient care plans, nutrition assessments, and filling out insurance forms, all of which require precision and uniformity throughout the system. 

Here’s what her experience was like before automation:

“Before adopting automation into our clinical processes, we did everything manually with word templates. This strategy was not only long but tedious; we did a lot of cross-checking to ensure accuracy and completeness which of course was more time-consuming and in turn led to delays in the provision of patient care services.”

And here’s the outcome achieved after implementing automation:

“We deployed document management and automation software which is integrated with the EHR system enabling us to create a standardized EHR and forms easily. This change has contributed to a reduction of close to 40 percent of our administrative work and a boost in accuracy which was required for compliance management. More importantly, it has enabled us to focus more on patients with very encouraging outcomes.”

Healthcare automation software ensures accuracy by using standardized templates, ensuring consistency, and reducing possible errors that might occur when creating documents from scratch every time. Also, accuracy is guaranteed because the system extracts variable data directly from databases without human intervention.

Improved efficiency and productivity 

According to ResearchGate, healthcare workers spend 18.7 percent of their time on administrative tasks. That’s about two hours in an eight-hour shift spent on tasks such as discharge summaries, appointment reminders, or billing forms that could be easily automated. 

Imagine what your staff could accomplish with that time—doctors could see an additional two to three patients per shift, nurses could provide more hands-on care to one to two more patients, and dietitians like Akanksha, who recovered 40 percent of her time, could conduct extra nutrition counseling sessions each day. Even if you aim to relieve your staff to avoid burnout, eliminating repetitive administrative tasks can help you achieve that.

Cost savings 

Imagine a hospital discharging at least a dozen patients daily with nurses taking about 15 minutes to create each discharge summary manually. This adds up to three hours of unproductive labor each day resulting in a significant cost. However, with automation, you only need to invest in a tool, which is minimal compared to the total labor costs over a month.

Also, automation reduces the reliance on paper and printing supplies, which can lead to significant cost savings over time. Digital document storage eliminates the need for physical file storage, further cutting costs related to space and organization.

Increased compliance and security

Standardized templates ensure that every healthcare document includes all the fields and information required for regulatory compliance. For instance, templates can be pre-configured with sections like patient consent clauses, HIPAA compliance statements, or insurance mandatory fields, leaving no room for omissions or errors.

Additionally, medical document automation solutions, such as Docupilot, incorporate security features like access controls to ensure that only authorized persons can view or modify documents. Docupilot is also HIPAA-compliant and uses data encryption to protect patient privacy, ensuring that sensitive information remains secure throughout the document lifecycle.

How to Automate Healthcare Documents Using Docupilot?

Creating effective healthcare documents requires choosing the right document automation tool. If you need a solution that's secure, feature-rich, affordable, easy to use, and backed by reliable customer support, consider Docupilot. 

You can start automating your documents immediately by signing up for a free 30-day trial and following these simple steps.

Step 1: Create your template

Start by creating a standardized template for the document you want to automate, such as discharge summaries, consent forms, or billing statements. In Docupilot, you can create templates from scratch or import an existing one. 

For example, to create a treatment invoice, click “Create Template,” then select “Online Builder.” Choose your output type, name the template, and add a description (optional), then click "Create".

Step 2: Add merge field

Merge fields are placeholders that allow you to customize a template. These fields cover variables like patient name, date of birth, medical ID, and more. 

To add merge fields in Docupilot, click the curly bracket icon on the right, select “Token” under type, then enter the field name. Place your cursor where you want the placeholder to go and click "Insert."

Step 3: Test your document

Before going live, run a test to confirm that all fields are pulling data correctly. In Docupilot, click “Test,” and fill out the form fields with real data.

When done, click “Test” below the form to generate your sample document. Docupilot will replace the placeholders with the data and download the document.

Step 4: Automate bulk documents

Now, you can repeat the process in the previous step to automate the creation of large volumes of documents. This requires you to integrate Docupilot with your patient database using Make or Zapier to autofill the placeholders and generate documents without manual input. 

Step 5: Automate delivery

Finally, set up automatic document delivery. Depending on your needs, you can automate delivery to patient portals, secure emails, or even directly to insurance companies, streamlining distribution and ensuring timely access for patients and healthcare providers. Docupilot allows you to automate delivery directly to emails, but you need Webhooks for EHR systems.

Wrapping Up 

Healthcare document automation is transforming the industry by reducing human error, boosting productivity, and cutting costs. From automating discharge summaries to consent forms, healthcare professionals can focus more on patient care and less on administrative tasks. However, you need an effective automation tool like Docupilot that ensures you get all the benefits of automation promised in this article.

If you’re ready to improve your team's efficiency, sign up for Docupilot today and experience the power of document automation firsthand.