Blue Prism digital workers immediately deliver COVID-19 test results to Bupa Care Homes

When UK families require assistance while caring for a loved one, they often turn to Bupa. This well-respected healthcare organisation offers residential and nursing care at over 120 homes and ten retirement villages.

With its residents among the most vulnerable to COVID-19, Bupa knew it needed a way to quickly identify any ill staff members to keep residents safe. A Blue Prism digital workforce came on board to help. In fact, Bupa’s intelligent automation program was so impactful, it won the 2021 Blue Prism for Good Award.

Challenge

Resident’s safety is Bupa’s top priority. As COVID-19 cases began to spike in the UK, they followed the government’s regular testing programme, to ensure homes could keep people safe by responding quickly to any changes in their COVID status.

While necessary, processing weekly test results for 10,000 employees presented a significant logistical challenge. With thousands of test results emailed each day, Bupa needed a way to identify and communicate positive test results. The solution had to be scalable with little-to-no notice since the volume of testing increased unpredictably.

Solution

Digital workers have processed over 800,000 emails and results notifications for over 370,000 tests Bupa was already using Blue Prism for back-office processes and, during the pandemic, added five digital workers with help from Blue Prism’s COVID-19 Response programme.

The dedicated digital workers now spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week triaging thousands of test results to ensure that care homes are immediately notified of positive test results, and that data is collected and stored.

Results

Bupa estimates this work would have required over 10,000 hours of staff time to complete. Thanks to the digital workers, staff can focus their time on resident care. Other important benefits include reduced error rates for increased compliance and audibility.

Digital workers have processed over 800,000 emails, including test registration and results notifications for over 370,000 tests. They’ve also sent SMS notifications from the NHS to front-line teams within seconds of a positive result notification; allowing homes to respond quickly and prevent the spread of infection.

Blue Prism digital workers are helping to collect and store test-result data. They connect directly to Bupa's Enterprise Data Warehouse and have recorded 7.8 million data points, all while maintaining compliance with strict data privacy laws.