Zorgpartners Midden-Holland enthusiastically embraces RPA

In healthcare, process optimization is a top priority, driven by challenges such as a tight labor market and high administrative burdens. Zorgpartners Midden-Holland has chosen Robotic Process Automation (RPA) as part of its efforts to optimize processes and support both its employees and the organization as a whole.

Zorgpartnersis a VVT organization (Nursing, Care, and Home Care) in the Midden-Holland region. The majority of care is provided on an inpatient basis, with a portion of the organization dedicated to home care, rehabilitation, and assisted living. The organization has a budget of approximately 170 million euros to provide high-quality care to around 3,000 in- and outpatient clients.

“On the financial administration side, we are constantly looking at how we can automate processes,” says Arnold Oudijk, Business Controller at Zorgpartners Midden-Holland. He is the driving force behind an RPA project at this care organization based in Gouda, which has now expanded to include other departments.

Innovation in a Tight Labor Market

He explains: “Innovation has been progressing rapidly in recent years. Especially since the pandemic, online and digital possibilities have expanded, and we are making active use of them. We keep a close eye on this, particularly because, in healthcare, we face a tight labor market. Where we used to receive dozens of applications for a vacancy, now we only get two or three. Additionally, many employees in the finance department are retiring.”

The focus, therefore, is primarily on continuity and efficiency in operations and administration. “But more broadly within Zorgpartners, it would be ideal to reduce the administrative burden in healthcare. Fewer people means that every efficiency improvement is welcome.”

In his search for solutions, he came into contact with Robotic Process Automation (RPA) two years ago. “At that time, we already saw that automating repetitive tasks cou

Process Optimization After Workshop

The desire to improve the organization of simple, repetitive tasks for employees remained in the background. This goal was revived when Tacstone presented concrete ideas during a discussion with Zorgpartners about innovation.

“The concrete examples that Tacstone presented during a demonstration from another healthcare institution showed us that this could really help us.”

Peter Noordam | Concern controller Zorgpartners Midden-Holland

After the demo, Zorgpartners, in collaboration with Tacstone, organized a workshop for representatives from various departments. Denise van der Ploeg, Coordinator of the Customer Service Center, explains: “Through the departments of client administration, waiting list mediation, and financial administration, we identified sixteen processes that are suitable for RPA. We then selected four processes to start with.”

The initial processes to be automated include the Registration Control for Client Administration; AGB (Dutch healthcare provider) Control for Planning & Control; Verification when creating creditor payments for Financial Administration; and reading in sales invoice lines for Financial Administration. The underlying systems that the robot works with are systems commonly used by many healthcare institutions, such as Exact, Excel, ECD (Electronic Client Dossier), Vecozo, and Vektis.

Demo: Registration control

At Zorgpartners Midden-Holland, the robot “Procespartner” is used for Robotic Process Automation (RPA). This robot supports various departments with administrative tasks such as reading invoice lines, verifying creditor payments, and performing AGB verifications. The demo video shows how Procespartner checks client registrations in the ECD system.

Time Savings and Quality Improvements

The AGB process, for example, eliminates the need to manually search for and enter those codes online. This check can now be done in advance, rather than after the fact. In the financial administration, the robot checks approximately 800 to 1,000 payment instructions twice a week that are prepared from the financial package. Previously, this could only be done through random sampling.

Oudijk explains: “This not only saves us time but also leads to a qualitative improvement. However, it is necessary to adjust the workflow, as not all invoices used to come in as PDFs. Now, when processing, automatic recognition is done by the invoice scanning system, and the payment process is triggered.”

“This not only provides us with time savings, but also a qualitative improvement.”

Arnold Oudijk | Business Controller Zorgpartners Midden-Holland

Employee Engagement

As is often the case with the introduction of robots, the initial reaction is often hesitant. Oudijk explains: “People wonder whether the robot will take over their jobs. Creating awareness among employees is the foundation for successfully implementing the project. Therefore, a process expert and owner have been appointed for each process. Then, in collaboration with Tacstone, the process was developed with this person. Their input forms the basis for the robot. It’s important for adoption that people are directly involved.”

Van der Ploeg adds: “It’s very beneficial that Arnold first worked with Tacstone to explain to the involved employees the advantages of RPA.”

“Zo leeft het niet alleen voor de leidinggevenden, maar zien ook medewerkers de meerwaarde. Het is belangrijk om iedereen mee te nemen.”

Denise van der Ploeg | Coördinator Customer Service Center Zorgpartners Midden-Holland

Cost Savings

Noordam explains: “An important aspect for us is the balance between costs and benefits. We obviously want to know what the project actually delivers. We have calculated the time savings for all sixteen selected processes. The robot can run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without breaks or sleep. But the robot is not free, so we want to clearly see what it effectively delivers. And aside from the cost savings, quality also plays a role.”

“In healthcare, especially, this can be a significant improvement, such as when staff no longer need to duplicate certain registrations. Once these processes are up and running and we see the added value, we will certainly move to a second phase, where we expand and automate other processes as well.”