B-038 Applying Robotic Process Automation Technology to Automate the Release of Pathology Results and Reduce Costs, Time and Labor in a Clinical Laboratory
Authors: Oliveira J R , Escalante I B , Fernandes I R , Milani V S , Costa P G , Jacomo R H , Abdalla L F 
Published: September 2023

Background

The need for pathological anatomy tests has increased considerably in recent years, especially in one of our regional branches, where the total operational time to release the report to the patient is crucial to obtain competitive advantages in the market. As a result, the branch´s technical team observed the high lead time of the process, the inefficiency of the use of internal resources and the impact of the various fully manual activities in order to deliver the service offered to the customer and, therefore, sought out the Production Planning and Control (PPC) team with the objective of implementing improvements, in order to optimize the total operation time and automate the activities involved, adding more value to the patient and highlighting the laboratory's brand against competitors.

Methods

In order to implement continuous improvements in the operation of anatomical pathology samples, the involved teams held several brainstorming sessions and mapped out the supply chain for these types of tests. Firstly, the samples were received and outsourced to a partner laboratory and as the results were ready, the reports were made available in their Laboratory Information System (LIS). These reports were then retrieved manually by a capacitated employee whose only job was to download the reports from the partner´s website, revise it and upload it to our LIS so that our patients had access to the result report. Through the application of the principles of the Value Stream Map (VSM) tool, it was possible to determine the time needed for each stage of the process and identify the use of resource in exclusive functions that negatively impact productivity such as the manual activity of retrieving and uploading files. Considering the analysis carried out, it was observed that the best way to automate the process and reduce lead time would be the development of an RPA (Robotic Process Automation) that would login in the partner laboratory´s LIS, search for the patients´ reports, download it, and upload it into our LIS. Once the report was available in our system, the analyst had only to revised it briefly for matching information and release the results.

Results

With the creation of RPA, the process was redesigned along with the teams involved, manual activities were automated and the need for resource exclusivity was mitigated. Thus, it was possible to obtain a 50% optimization of the designated employee's time, a 75% reduction in the total lead time of the internal operation of the laboratory team and a gain of approximately 38% in the productivity of the technical area, making the process faster and more efficient.

Conclusion

With the implementation and validation of RPA in the external unit, the manual process of using the systems was eliminated and the new automated process obtained excellent results when compared to the previous scenario, while now we have greater agility and speed in activities and a continuous flow of information that includes the efficient release of pathological anatomy exam results, strengthening the laboratory's competitiveness in the market and ensuring customer loyalty.