IHH Healthcare Singapore (IHH SG) has integrated UiPath’s Business Automation Platform into daily workflows for process automation, including report automation for corporate customers and streamlining operations.
IHH SG is one the largest private healthcare providers in Singapore, operating four hospitals - Gleneagles Hospital, Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, and Parkway East Hospital - and more than 30 primary care clinics.
IHH SG’s assistant vice president of information technology, Harry Chan, told iTnews Asia that the hospital has replaced manual password resets for employees, and now uses a chatbot to automate password resets, saving time and ensuring easy and quick access to critical systems like pharmacies and operating theatres, vital for patient care.
It allows the staff to retrieve forgotten passwords within five to seven minutes, and the cost savings from automation amounts to over S$800,000 per year, said Chan.
According to the hospital, provides third-party administrator services to over 2,000 corporate customers, which requires staff members to prioritise top clients when writing reports.
Earlier, the team could only complete up to 20 reports per month due to a lack of resources, and now with automation, it is able to support half of customers, said Chan.
It saves the organisation approximately S$700,000 a year, and when extended to the full 2,000 customers, the yearly cost savings would double to approximately S$1.5 million a year, he added.
The hospital can automatically update specialist doctors' lists on insurance company websites, and check for dead links on the company’s website, making it easy for the digital marketing team to check such links.
IHH Healthcare's Training department, through automation, ensures the recording of courses from the learning management system into the human resources (HR) system, while replacing the repetitive, and time-consuming manual process.
Helps automation
According to the healthcare provider, it currently works with two automation solution providers, including UiPath.
It has tapped UiPath for the complete solution, a user-friendly desktop version, and to expand robotic process automation (RPA) into intelligent automation.
Chan said an internal audit depicting the inefficiencies in manually checking and removing accounts of departing employees in legacy systems led to the exploration of automation solutions.
After careful evaluation, the company decided to go with UiPath for better credential management, mitigating security risks and preventing unauthorised personnel from accessing key systems, he added.
The software firm has extended support in setting up a Centre of Excellence (COE), to centralise licenses and infrastructure to run the automation initiatives and collaborate on citizen developer training.
It also involves customising automation initiatives for HR, marketing, and finance departments.
According to Chan, with automation support from UiPath, IHH SG offers better customer experiences as customers receive timely reports, facilitating better decision-making, and improved internal efficiency as manual tasks have been replaced by valuable work.
He added that following the implementation of initial automation features, IHH has recognised the need for continuous monitoring to prevent errors arising from external factors like changes in website addresses.
In response, the organisation invested in maintenance strategies and established a dedicated support team for every new deployment - addressing errors and upholding employee confidence in the technology.
Plans to use generative AI
Chan said the IHH SG is exploring use cases with generative AI and LLMs (large language models), particularly in three areas of the corporate department, call centre, and nursing and clinical operation.
Some of these use cases are at the user acceptance testing stage, while others are in the early stages of development, he added.
It is also planning to explore other UiPath solutions, including intelligent document processing, and other AI-powered automation including use cases using generative AI and LLMs.
