Healthcare Provider Quickly Responds to COVID-19 Testing Requirements

Based in Singapore, the National University Health System (NUHS) is an academic health system comprising a network of institutions that includes hospitals, national specialty centers and polyclinics. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, NUHS had to ramp up to meet the increased and unexpected demand on its services. While these were challenges felt by healthcare networks around the world, the approach the NUHS adopted to treat them was innovative; they leveraged a digital workforce.

Challenge

As the Singaporean government mounted its defense against COVID-19, the NUHS quickly found itself thick in the midst of the national pandemic response. It needed to conduct and register up to 1,000 swab tests per day primarily at the migrant worker dormitories, where NUHS was providing healthcare support. And registration was taking two minutes per test. However, registering tests was only the beginning. As results were returned, they needed to be rapidly disseminated across all the relevant Singaporean networks. Under the extreme pressure of trying to contain a pandemic, time became critical. It was clear the NUHS needed help to speed up its processes.

Solution

The NUHS engaged Blue Prism through its COVID-19 Response Program. The Program makes digital worker licenses and Blue Prism support available for free to help organizations on the frontlines respond to the global health crisis. Backed by the Program, the NUHS rapidly deployed Blue Prism digital workers, and the effects were immediate.

Test registration time decreased from two minutes to 30 seconds per test, saving the NUHS 18 work hours every day. Now, lab results arrive faster and more efficiently to both medical and IT systems. To date, the NUHS has been able to process more than 27,000 patient records this way. By tasking digital workers with result registration, employees are given more time to deliver vital frontline patient care.