Healthcare Compliance Software vs. Manual Compliance: Pros and Cons

    Hospitals are very busy places; you have healthcare workers doing their daily rounds 24/7 with little to no breaks. Their every move and time is essential to provide quality health services and be alert for any emergencies that do come, no matter if it’s night or day. With all these tedious tasks in their hands, it’s no surprise that administrative tasks such as checking patient records and insurance files are not something they would enjoy. Despite this, checking for health insurances and records is just as essential as patient care; without proper insurance, patients cannot be assessed properly, and thus, such a task should not be taken lightly.

    But as we mentioned, with the bustling environment in healthcare facilities, do these workers even have sufficient time to comply with these demands? Fortunately, modern health care compliance managers are now state-of-the-art and use software and algorithms to lessen the burden of these tasks on hospital and clinic staff. But is it really that good? Despite advancements in technology recently, one must ponder if this software is just as reliable as a human staff. That’s what we’re about to fine out.

    • Manual Compliance
      • Pros:
        • Proven and Tested: Of course, for the last decades or so, staff members have been a reliable system for administrative tasks such as these. While not as efficient as online systems, human analysis is still a far better option than to rely solely on software. Plus, the human ability to do tasks is limitless, while technology still has limits.
      • Cons:
        • Time Consuming: Compliance tasks are a pain to do; simply put, you must locate multiple documents, compile them, and do a report. Finding these documents can take a lot of time in the inventory room and sorting them is another nightmare. By the time you finish all of these, there might not even be time to make a proper report.
        • Not Cost Efficient: To have a reliable system, you need to invest in hiring the proper staff. Obviously, hiring members to handle compliance records and policies needs to have the proper compensation, and for you to have a good team behind you, you need to take a considerable amount from your funds.
    • Compliance Software
      • Pros:
        • Cost-Effective: with software such as this, you can limit your staff since it can do multiple tasks at once, such as documentation, time stamping, analysis, and reporting. Signatures are also auto sent to the appropriate people and would be tracked accordingly.
        • Good Tracking: unlike a human staff, which you need to facilitate throughout the entire process, automated software needs little monitoring, and you get real-time updates on the entire development.
      • Cons: 
        • Limited by Algorithms: depending on the software you avail; your compliance system might be limited to the number of tasks you want it to do; this means it might be prone to reliability issues and limits in its creative approach to problems.