Automation Anywhere Enables NHS to Launch Flu-Reporting Bot as Influenza and COVID-19 Surge

Automation Anywhere, Inc., a global leader in Robotic Process Automation (RPA), today announced the company is expanding its collaboration with Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – one of the largest teaching hospitals in the United Kingdom – to launch its flu-reporting bot. Already, it’s saved 2,000 hours that was previously spent compiling manual reports. 

To thwart a winter “twindemic” – where both influenza and COVID-19 spread and sicken patients and frontline staff – Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is offering the flu vaccine to its more than 14,000 employees. As part of the NHS Trust’s mandate to promote health and safety over the winter months, the need for reporting on the number of staff being vaccinated and flu-related absences has intensified. 

Current reporting processes are manual-intensive, requiring significant administrative time. Additionally, there is added pressure to report COVID-19 cases surging across the region. With the successful roll-out of the flu-reporting bot, Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is reviewing plans to extend the technology to support local test and trace processes and report on COVID-19 vaccinations, when they are ready to be administered. 

Freeing up time for patient-centered healthcare with intelligent automation

Already, the new flu-reporting bot has captured updates for more than 10,000 staff vaccinations across multiple clinical sites and saved nearly three months of cumulative administrative time. Automating the reporting has given valuable hours back to the Trust at a time when staff resources are strained daily. 

“Right from the start, intelligent automation has helped us enhance staff engagement, free up valuable resources and has had a positive impact on the work we do for our staff and patients,” said Neil Picton, Head of Workforce Engagement and Information, Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. “The flu-reporting bot has helped to streamline a heavy administrative load for our Occupational Health team. It has also helped improve data accuracy and ensured valuable time is not diverted from supporting staff and patient care.” 

Added Steven Forster, Occupational Health Manager, Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, “The use of intelligent automation has drastically improved the accuracy and information governance as well as saving invaluable Occupational Health staff time, which has allowed our team to focus on more meaningful work. 

The flu-reporting bot is an expansion of a successful intelligent automation program implemented by the Trust to enhance workforce processes, improve employee morale and deliver more time to focus on critical patient care. 

“Healthcare facilities have been under tremendous pressure this year, and intelligent automation is helping to refocus precious time back to where it’s most needed – on the front line, centered on patient care,” said Prince Kohli, CTO, Automation Anywhere. “We are proud to support Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and are encouraged by how they continue to scale their use of RPA to empower staff and make better use of available resources to ensure the best patient care.” 

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Media Contacts:

Kerry Davis
Automation Anywhere
Kerry.davis@automationanywhere.com
+44 79 32552473 

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