With over 80,000 employees, 13 hospitals and an educational institution, it’s no wonder Mass General Brigham is the largest healthcare provider in Eastern Massachusetts. With that size comes an equally large number of duties. To help staff return focus to clinical work, especially after the COVID-19 crisis, the team turned to Blue Prism to bring automation into their operations. Now administrative work is carried out by digital workers, leaving staff to do what they do best – care for patients.

Challenge

As with all medical establishments, even before COVID-19 hit, employees were at risk of burnout. Administrative tasks took far too long to accomplish, and, in some cases, were left piling up, which added financial stress to the emotional toll.

Mass General Brigham wanted to work wiser with employees, using their invaluable knowledge of healthcare to better serve patients rather than wasting time with paperwork. Ultimately, they wanted to put physicians back with patients, whether virtually or in actual examination rooms.

But the back-office paperwork still needed to be completed to maintain patient satisfaction and steady revenue. So management looked to intelligent automation for solutions. They gathered a thorough understanding of all processes within the organization and realized how many departments would benefit from digital workers.

Solution

Mass General Brigham has quickly become a leader in adopting new technology. Starting with enterprise-wide processes, such as payroll and supply chain, Blue Prism digital workers are now active across ten different functional areas. Almost every single employee (and patient) feels the positive impact of the digital workforce.

By involving every team and organizing a clear structure from day one, Mass General Brigham has grown their automation program quickly and, since employees see their digital counterparts as coworkers rather than a threat, cultural adoption has been seamless. After all, the tasks a digital worker completes free up employees to focus on patients, improving employee satisfaction and generating revenue that wasn’t there before.

With over 35 processes now in place, Mass General Brigham has seen savings increase from a few $100,000s to over $10 million. And the future? The team of trained developers is looking to introduce new ways to run verification by uploading a photo of the patient’s Medicaid or Medicare card. Blue Prism would enhance patients’ journeys by connecting front office functions through to appointments and billing.