Three steps for identifying the right opportunities for healthcare automation

Automation is rapidly transforming healthcare delivery, driving greater efficiency, improving patient care, and reducing clinician burnout. However, while enthusiasm for the technology is growing, many healthcare organizations still struggle to identify which opportunities to automate and how to prioritize them effectively. 

The key to success lies in establishing a systematic approach: brainstorm widely, filter intentionally, and prioritize strategically. Here’s how to put that into action.

Step 1: Brainstorm automation opportunities

Effective brainstorming for healthcare automation hinges on asking the right questions—questions designed to highlight pressing issues, uncover overlooked inefficiencies, and reveal high-impact opportunities. By guiding teams through structured exploration of their most significant operational pain points, organizations can identify promising workflows for automation.

For instance, leaders can explore workforce and staffing-related questions:

• “What would we do differently if we could suddenly hire 100 more full-time employees?”
• “Where do we have the largest staff shortages, highest turnover rates, or roles we struggle to fill?”

While these questions are qualitative, it’s important to explore quantitative methods by digging into benchmark staffing data, HR turnover statistics, and departmental staffing trends.

Another valuable approach focuses on administrative burden, pinpointing repetitive, manual tasks draining resources:

• “Which administrative tasks consistently frustrate our teams and slow down productivity?”
• “Which processes are still managed manually or tracked through spreadsheets?”

Here, quantitative metrics such as EHR workqueue volumes, average turnaround times, and ticketing system data can also help highlight tasks that cause disproportionate administrative strain or delays.

Process bottlenecks represent another critical area, identifying inefficiencies disrupting patient flow:

• “Where are the biggest bottlenecks or delays in patient movement and care delivery?”
• “At which points do handoffs between teams frequently fail, and could parallel processing reduce these issues?”

Quantitative insights such as patient-flow analytics, EHR timestamps, throughput data, and delay metrics can precisely pinpoint where processes stall.

Finally, consider quality and patient experience, focusing on variability and opportunities for personalization:

• “Which high-volume workflows suffer from significant human-to-human variability, compromising quality?”
• “What patient experience moments could be transformed through personalization at scale?”

Leveraging patient satisfaction scores, patient experience surveys, and quality dashboards can quantitatively assess these opportunities.

Through a combination of targeted questions and quantitative analysis, organizations can effectively illuminate prime automation candidates, directly addressing their most significant operational and patient care challenges.

Step 2: Filter ideas for automation feasibility

Once a broad set of ideas is identified, the next step is to determine their viability for automation. 

The most feasible automation candidates will be workflows that are:

• High volume
• Predictable and repeatable processes with clearly defined steps
• EHR event-driven, triggered by specific electronic health record events (e.g., patient registration, orders)
• High-friction or frequent tasks causing delays, errors, or administrative overload
• Near real-time tasks requiring immediate response (seconds to minutes)
• Tasks relying heavily on structured or unstructured data aggregation for decisions or summaries

The less feasible automation candidates will be workflows that are:

• Low-volume 
• Open-ended processes with vague or inconsistent triggers, extensive manual reviews, or unpredictable workflows
• Processes reliant on outdated systems lacking APIs or FHIR support, or locked into specific vendors preventing interoperability
• Tasks spanning multiple departments without clear ownership

Strong candidates for automation include highly manual, repetitive tasks with high volume, significant business impact, and low resistance to change. 

Prior authorization, for example, is an ideal workflow for automation. It’s predictable and has event-driven triggers, while manual coordination among multiple external providers is typically too open-ended and unpredictable.

Step 3: Prioritize automation opportunities for impact

After filtering feasible candidates, prioritization helps organizations identify workflows with the greatest business viability and impact. This can be achieved through a 2x2 framework that compares impact (business, operational, quality, and experience) versus speed to value.

Key prioritization criteria include:

• Revenue impact
• Cost savings or cost avoidance
• Task volume
• Scalability of the problem and solution
• Organizational impact potential
• Organizational readiness and appetite for change
• Ability to execute quickly, considering governance, change management, internal politics, operational readiness, data, and integrations

A simple 2x2 prioritization framework helps clarify action plans:

• Quick wins: High impact, low complexity—these are ideal first projects.
• Strategic initiatives: High impact, high complexity—these require detailed planning but offer significant long-term value.
• Secondary priorities: Moderate impact and complexity—these are valuable but not immediately urgent.
• Defer/discard: Low impact, high complexity—these are generally not worth immediate investment.

Automating routine clinical documentation is a “quick win,” quickly reducing clinician workload. Conversely, automating complex cross-system analytics represents a strategic initiative, providing substantial long-term value but demanding thoughtful preparation and resources.

Planning for the future of healthcare

Systematically identifying and prioritizing automation opportunities enables healthcare organizations to fully leverage the potential of automation technology. This structured approach streamlines processes, reduces inefficiencies, enhances patient outcomes, and boosts clinician satisfaction.

What untapped automation opportunities are waiting to transform your organization? Get in touch today to learn more.