Higher Level of Automation Through Collaborative Human-Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in Healthcare Administration

Abstract

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has become popular as a tool to automate on the User Interface (UI) by mimicking the inputs of the user. Healthcare administration is regarded as a key industry for potential RPA applications, but few examples have yet been operationalised and described in literature. The healthcare industry is lagging behind other industries. In early years, the scope of RPA was limited to rule-based, mundane tasks and processes (traditional RPA), which set a limit on the level of automation. In recent years, RPA has seen extension with Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology (cognitive RPA), now allowing applications with more knowledge-intense tasks and increased interaction with users (collaborative RPA). It is unclear how much the level of automation can increase with collaborative RPA compared to traditional RPA. One goal of this work is to conceptualise RPA in the use case of administrative back office processes of a healthcare provider, the home care organisation Spitex Basel. Based on this use case, the chances and hurdles are analysed, a solution design for collaborative RPA is developed and two typical RPA processes are conceptualised and evaluated. This goal contributes to a greater understanding of RPA usage in the healthcare industry.