Creating better end-to-end experiences in healthcare and life sciences

COVID-19 has impacted every industry, but perhaps none more than healthcare and life sciences. From how and where healthcare is provided to the speed of developing and administering vaccines, there has been massive disruption to the way healthcare and life sciences organizations operate. But the crisis also provided unprecedented opportunities to reexamine and transform.

For example, multiple COVID-19 vaccines made it to the market in only 12 months, which is almost unbelievable compared to the pre-pandemic average of eight to 10 years. Similarly, the ServiceNow® Vaccine Administration Management solution has helped public and private sector entities vaccinate millions of people globally in record time. We continue to innovate and expand the reach of this solution.

A tremendous amount of patient-centric work is taking place at ServiceNow. That's what's behind the release of our Healthcare and Life Sciences Service Management product. Our goal is to simplify and improve the end-to-end journeys related to planning for care, delivering care, paying for services, or supporting clinical trials. Here are three ways we're doing that:

Improving the clinician and employee experience

A Stanford Medicine study found 63% of physicians say electronic medical records (EMRs) have improved patient care. But about half of the respondents say EMRs detract from their professional satisfaction and clinical effectiveness.

University of Kentucky (UK) HealthCare worked with software company INRY to provide a Help button within its EMR that seamlessly integrates with the ServiceNow IT Service Management solution. The button allows doctors and clinicians to report a software problem in a single click, minimizing the time spent on a task that doesn't directly contribute to care.

UK HealthCare also deployed a live chat window that enables a clinician to access help through a virtual agent. This reduced support desk calls by 25%. These savings can be redirected toward activities that directly affect the quality of patient care.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital used ServiceNow IntegrationHub and App Engine to build fast, efficient custom apps for vendor invoices, digital contract signatures, and its pharmaceutical services informatics team. As a result, the hospital saw time spent on invoicing decrease from 40-80 hours a month to only 13 hours. That's a labor savings of about 14 weeks per year-just for the invoicing department.

Keeping health data secure

More than 29 million healthcare records were exposed in 2020, according to the HIPAA Journal. A study reported in Health IT Security found that more than half of breached organizations already knew they were vulnerable. Yet, only 23% of health organizations have adopted and deployed security technology, training, and procedures needed to manage and thwart cyberattacks, according to Fierce Healthcare. 

When Bupa Australia and New Zealand wanted to improve its security posture and reduce risk, the global healthcare insurance provider embraced ServiceNow Vulnerability Response, which it refers to as "cyber hygiene" that drives down risk. The company also started using Security Incident Response, which helps identify and prioritize critical incidents and then improve the workflow, automation, and speed of remediation.

Personalizing healthcare & life sciences experiences

Signant Health set out to enhance its user experience after finding that 60% of patients who started a clinical trial didn't complete it. The organization worked with Capgemini to build a solution that integrated the Now Platform with seven supporting tools.

Soon after the solution went live, Signant needed to set up trials for COVID-19 vaccines. The organization created a new clinical trial startup process in only four weeks. The trials, which involved 46,000 people across six continents, had a 95% satisfaction rating.

Scotland's National Health Service (NHS Scotland) created its own workflows to schedule vaccinations, collect COVID-19 testing data, and begin contact tracing for its 6.5 million citizens using ServiceNow Customer Service Management.

"Because it's low-code, we can very quickly change it to be what we want," explains Deryck Mitchelson, director of national digital and security. "We'll do things like our winter flu program, as well, and COVID boosters when they come in. It will sit at the heart of the NHS going forward."

Learn more about how your healthcare or life sciences organization can improve experiences and long-term outcomes across the entire continuum of care in our Healthcare Book of Knowledge.

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