Healthcare

Optimising resource allocation: Leveraging BPM for efficient staff scheduling in hospitals

The healthcare industry has never been one to shy away from innovation, constantly pushing boundaries to ensure patients get the best possible care. However, with the changing expectations in today's complex healthcare landscape, hospitals and healthcare providers also have to manage the business aspects of healthcare operations expertly.

Traditionally reliant on manual efforts, the industry today has to deal with increasing margin pressures and staffing challenges (burnout, staff shortage, and turnover) while managing and coordinating a complex array of resources and assets. Healthcare resource planning and allocation inefficiencies can have significant consequences in terms of operational bottlenecks, affecting the quality of patient care.

Here is where BPM tools come into play. They improve the operational efficiency of organisations while automating and optimising healthcare resource allocation.

Challenges in the healthcare industry

Healthcare resource allocation and planning is a complex process, requiring organisations to manage everything from medical equipment and supplies to staff time and schedules. Ensuring efficient utilisation of every resource is challenging, coupled with increasing margin pressures, changing regulations, and evolving treatment protocols. This has put a strain on the healthcare system, especially on the hospital staff and other healthcare service providers.

However, without efficient resource allocation and planning in healthcare, it is the patients who are often the ones to suffer with longer wait times and sub-optimal patient care. Challenges like complex staff availability, varying patient demands across the year, and the need for priority-based treatment further exacerbate this issue.

Strategies for efficient healthcare resource allocation

Although challenging, efficient healthcare resource allocation is possible. Understanding the specific needs of your healthcare facility is the foundation of efficient resource allocation. Once you have this information, here are some best practices to help optimise resource allocation in healthcare settings:

• Implementing a centralised scheduling system can help streamline the overall scheduling process, improve cross-departmental coordination, and enhance efficiency.
• Employing a standardised scheduling protocol can ensure consistency, reduce confusion, and prioritise urgent communication based on patient needs and the availability of the staff.
• Enabling quick and clear communication minimises disruptions and enhances coordination.
• Understanding the skillsets of healthcare professionals available can help balance the workload to avoid overburdening or underutilising the available staff.
• Leveraging real-time data can help monitor and adjust schedules, ensuring resource allocation based on the current needs and patient volumes.

Healthcare business process outsourcing can help you implement these practices and leverage BPM for efficient healthcare resource allocation.

Leveraging BPM for healthcare resource allocation

Various business intelligence and BPM tools, such as data visualisation, statistical and predictive analytics, text mining, and cohort analysis, help hospitals leverage data and facilitate data-driven resource allocation. Leveraging these tools and BPM for healthcare resource allocation can help with the following:

Streamline patient flow

BPM for healthcare can help streamline patient flow and scheduling and identify (and eliminate) bottlenecks and inefficiencies to optimise the time of healthcare workers while improving patient experience.

Optimise resource allocation

Healthcare business process outsourcing provides access to tools for efficient and optimised resource allocation. This includes everything from procurement and inventory management to optimising room utilisation and managing staff schedules. These tools ensure the hospital is well-staffed at all times (according to the facility's needs) and has access to critical resources (equipment, medications, and other essential supplies) to offer the best possible patient care.

Facilitate demand-based staffing

BPM tools can analyse historical patient data to anticipate trends, such as seasonal patient intake surges or flu season, and manage staff schedules accordingly. With these insights, hospitals can change staff-to-patient ratios to ensure patient care does not suffer while also reducing the chances of burnout.

Manage compliance

Healthcare institutions must comply with various regulatory and industry standards. This involves dealing with large amounts of documentation on a daily basis, from patient records to payment and insurance information. Digitising these documents can not only simplify management but also create an auditable trail to ensure regulatory compliance when it comes to patient care standards.

Simplify claims and billing

Claims and billing management is one of the most chaotic processes in hospitals. It requires coordination between multiple internal departments—like doctors and nurses, pharmacy, administration, and more—and insurance companies. BPM systems can help streamline this complex process, increasing the speed and accuracy of claims and billing management while also creating auditable trails for compliance management.

How can Infosys BPM help in healthcare resource allocation?

Optimising resource allocation in healthcare is a challenging task. However, leveraging healthcare business process outsourcing services can give you access to BPM tools that can help simplify staff scheduling and ensure efficient resource allocation. Infosys BPM healthcare services can help you navigate the changing dynamics of the modern healthcare landscape. With services ranging from business analytics and medical management to benefit administration and claims processing, Infosys BPM can help you leverage data-driven insights to optimise healthcare resource allocation.