Automation makes care more efficient for clients

How can we organize our clients’ “care logistics journey” more efficiently? This question was at the heart of the Care Logistics program at GGZ inGeest in Amsterdam. In a broad-based project, robotization of support processes with Robotic Process Automation (RPA) was one of the solutions, in addition to workflow and planning support and process optimizations. Meanwhile, the robot helps with 20 tasks.

GGZ inGeest is active in Amsterdam, Amstelveen, Haarlem and Hoofddorp with outpatient care, care in the neighborhood, crisis care, clinics and a residential location. For adults and the elderly, GGZ inGeest provides care for people with complex problems so they can participate in society again.

More than three years ago, the Care Logistics program was set up at GGZ inGeest, with the goal of making the so-called care logistics journey for the client more efficient and supporting it better for employees. Ivanka Eijman, project manager at the Administrative Affairs department, says: “What we were up against, and this plays out at most GGZ institutions, is the combination of long waiting times, growth in the number of clients, and a difficult labor market. Therefore, we wanted to design our processes smarter, to be able to help more clients with the current number of colleagues.”

Strategic question

That strategic question was addressed broadly, in part by looking closely at processes.

“Many operations in the healthcare logistics process were still done manually, with a lot of mail traffic and spreadsheets. Manual operations can lead to errors and rework.”

Ivanka Eijman | Project Manager Department of Administration at GGZ inGeest

“Moreover, for us, collaboration with other healthcare partners is important to help clients, which can be easier if we have a good understanding of our own processes.”

Various solutions were implemented as part of the Care Logistics program, including a workflow system with planning support and robotization of various support tasks. Eijman: “That we were also going to look at RPA was the advice of our then ICT director. We did a vendor selection, and for the RPA part we chose Tacstone Technology. Besides robotization, they could also help us with the analysis of our processes and improvements in them.”

Registration

Annemiek van Rooy is manager of the Care Alo department at GGZ inGeest, which houses a number of registration tasks, including registering clients. That’s where the first robot was put down. She explains: “With us, it is important that the care is registered legitimately, so that we are allowed to invoice it. And, of course, you’d prefer to get that right at the source, so that you don’t have to do any checks or repairs afterwards.”

“An additional challenge with this is that we have to deal with seasonal patterns. When it was busy, we had too little capacity, for example during vacations. When it was quieter, on the other hand, we had too much capacity. If you can bring a certain continuity to that by automating standard work, that also has advantages.”

Annemiek van Rooy | Manager Department of Care Alo at GGZ inGeest

Digital colleague Geesje

A digital colleague named Geesje was put down for this process. Eijman: ” From the beginning it was clear that it would be a long-term program. Therefore, we wanted to be able to show initial success quickly. That was possible with robotic enrollment, that is, manually processing referral letters in our EHR.”

With that first robot, however, the importance of a good process description became apparent. Van Rooy: “The process was not described in sufficient detail for a robot. Employees do not speak that language naturally: they now have to explain step by step what they are doing, when, and how, so that a robot can take over without interpretation. That proved difficult.”

Trust

Eijman: “We knew that good and complete process descriptions were essential for robotization. Therefore, when we started robotizing a task, we always sat down with employees to map out the process. Still, after development, we sometimes got the message, “The robot isn’t doing it right.” Then it turned out there was an exception situation after all that we had not discussed before. We then had to build that in. The basis was 80% correct, but the remaining 20% contained situations that required other actions. We really had to ask deeper questions about those.”

Van Rooy: “You have to take the time for that, and make clear choices: which exceptions do you robotize and which do you not? Some situations are so infrequent and complex that you consciously choose to leave them manual. Building trust in the robot has been a process, with employees learning to let go.”

Organization

After those initial lessons, things moved quickly, and currently the robot performs 20 tasks across five licenses of UiPath software. Eijman: “We have embedded this well in the organization, together with application management. It is important to determine in the organization who will pick it up if something does go wrong. The employee from whom the robot takes over work is responsible for following up on the breakdown, and that employee’s supervisor is ultimately responsible for the task the robot performs.”

Van Rooy: “The advantage of robotization is that it gives quick results. You take a single task, automate it, and the effect is immediately visible.”

“Our robot Geesje is actually a colleague. Only she works faster and longer.”

Annemiek van Rooy | Manager Department of Care Alo at GGZ inGeest

“We have now completed the project as a whole, although of course it is never really finished. We have thus laid a solid foundation: support for the client journey and the administrative work that goes with it. RPA is now one of the tools at our disposal to work more efficiently.