Report: 91 Percent of Healthcare Professionals Say to Fix Administrative Processes
On Sept. 16, a new report produced by the Arlington, Va.-based Wakefield Research, an independent research firm, on behalf of the Columbus, Ohio-based Olive, an AI as a service for healthcare company, titled “Internet of Healthcare Report,” finds that fixing broken administrative processes is “most urgent,” according to 91 percent of healthcare professionals.
A press release on the report states that “Humans in healthcare face an administrative deluge of disjointed data for which hiring cannot provide adequate relief: 64 percent of healthcare executives agree that there will never be enough staff to handle the volume of patient and member data at their organizations.”
Further, “The healthcare industry is among one of the top industries grappling with “The Great Resignation,” exacerbated by workers who are in desperate need of support both due to the pandemic and to ballooning administrative loads. Half of administrative staff report seeing an increase in the amount of manual data entry in the past 12 months—and 92 percent of clinicians agree that too much time spent on administrative tasks is a major contributor to healthcare worker burnout. This signals that these processes are in need of updating, not just to alleviate worker overload, but to deliver for patients. Ninety-one percent of healthcare professionals agree that fixing the burden of time-intensive, manual administrative processes is the most important thing they can do to improve the quality of patient care.”
Jeremy Friese, president of payer market at Olive is quoted in the release saying that “The healthcare industry deserves the automation that so many other industries have already experienced to empower it to function at its best, ultimately creating a new health experience for humans. For far too long healthcare workers have completed the same mundane administrative tasks over and over, and patients have shared the same information time and time again.”
Key findings from the report include:
- Ninety-three percent of healthcare professionals believe applying automation to remedy these processes will be good for their careers
- Seventy-eight percent of administrative staff agree, with nearly half (49 percent) of C-level healthcare executives fearing that employee turnover will be the most likely consequence of their organization not automating in the next one to two years
- Fifty-five percent of patients reported having to constantly repeat the same information
- Forty percent of patients reported they had to be the one to inform healthcare professionals of medications that other physicians have prescribed
- Fifty-one percent of patients reported delays in treatment due to insurance review processes
- Fifty-seven percent of patients agree that having all their medical history easily accessible to any healthcare provider would do the most to improve their health outcomes
- Twenty-one percent of patients records are reported to have at least one error, according to healthcare professionals
- Forty-eight percent report they suspect 20 percent or more of their records contain at least one error, if not multiple errors
- Forty percent of clinicians predict AI will decrease the risk of incorrect patient diagnosis
- Healthcare executives report their staff could get 90 minutes a day more to spend with patients through automation
- Ninety-eight percent of healthcare professionals report they believe AI-led advancements will be widespread through the U.S. by 2026
The methodology of the report states that “The survey was conducted by Wakefield Research online between July 2 and July 14, 2021, and included 200 Healthcare Provider/Payer C-Level Executives; 250 Healthcare Professionals, with qualifying roles of physicians, specialists, registered nurses (RNs), nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs); 250 Non-Clinical Administrative Staff who are working in patient care environments such as hospitals, clinics, and medical practices; and a nationally-representative audience of 1,000 U.S. adults aged over the age of 18.”
