ORGANIZATIONS FACED WITH A large volume of repetitive manual processes often look to automation to free up their employees to work on more productive tasks. The challenge, however, is deciding how to implement automation in a way that best suits the organization. Which processes should be prioritized for automation? And should the effort be led by technical experts or process experts? A close look at how two hospital systems adopted automation can provide clues to what approaches might work best for other organizations.
In 2018, the finance department of the Mass General Brigham hospital system in Boston was facing a worsening bottleneck in keeping track of the providers in its network. Front-line employees needed to gather up-to-date information on an increasing number of health care providers, but the process was slow and inefficient, requiring three separate hospital administrators to manually collect, aggregate, and export data through a mind-numbing series of clicks.
To help automate this and future processes, the hospital system established a new automation team by recruiting developers to build and manage automation tools and a process specialist from its finance department. The specialist worked with the finance department to restructure its workflow in a way that would lend itself to automation and with the automation team to build a tool that would fit into the new workflow. The tool they developed collected data on providers automatically and organized the information in a way that highlighted the actions the finance team would need to take to move the process forward. This liberated front-line finance employees to do higher-value work and allowed for scalability to manage the expected growth in the number of health care providers in the system.
Esta historia es de la edición Spring 2024 de MIT Sloan Management Review.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición Spring 2024 de MIT Sloan Management Review.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
The Trouble With Your Innovation Contests
Not all innovation contests should be winner-takes-all or judged by senior executives. New research shows how to structure contests to meet specific goals.
Scaling Automation: Two Proven Paths to Success
Lessons from two leading hospital systems show how to overcome the obstacles to automation.
How Tech Fails Late-Career Workers
Managers must make deliberate choices to support older workers' use of complex technologies.
Building Culture From the Middle Out
Midlevel leaders are critical to fostering an organizational culture that’s healthy and vibrant.
Why Manufacturers Need a Phased Approach to Digital Transformation
Those that succeed with this difficult work break it into three stages, each with its own guiding metrics.
Will Large Language Models Really Change How Work Is Done?
Even as organizations adopt increasingly powerful LLMs, they will find it difficult to shed their reliance on humans.
How to Make Better Friends at Work
Friendships in the workplace can enrich our lives and make us better leaders and workers if we make the effort to cultivate truly healthy relationships.
Health Care Platforms Need a Strategy Overhaul
To succeed, digital health platforms must shift their approach in three key areas.
Steer Clear of Corporate Venture Capital Pitfalls
Big companies and risk capital can be awkward partners. Here’s how to get corporate venturing right.
New Markets, New Opportunities: Identifying Where and How to Make Your Play
How do leaders determine whether to build a new business around a promising new technology?