Automation Candidates Worksheet

Not every task is worth automating. The best automation projects target tasks that score high on four criteria: they are repetitive, rule-based, high-volume, and error-prone. This worksheet gives you a structured way to evaluate your processes and identify the ones that will deliver the highest return when automated.

The Four Scoring Criteria

For each task you are considering, score it from 1 (low) to 5 (high) on each of these four dimensions. Tasks that score 16 or higher are strong automation candidates. Tasks scoring 12-15 are worth investigating. Below 12, manual execution is probably fine for now.

• Repetitive (1-5): How often is this task performed? A task done once a year scores a 1. A task done hundreds of times per day scores a 5. Daily or weekly tasks that follow the same pattern every time are automation gold.
• Rule-based (1-5): Can the task be described with clear if-then logic? If you can write out every decision point as a rule, it scores high. If it requires human judgment, subjective interpretation, or creative thinking, it scores low. A task that is 90% rule-based with a 10% exception rate still scores a 4.
• High-volume (1-5): How many items, records, or transactions does this task process? Sending one appointment reminder is low volume. Sending 200 appointment reminders per day is high volume. Volume amplifies the benefit of automation.
• Error-prone (1-5): How often do mistakes happen when this task is done manually? Data entry errors, missed steps, inconsistent formatting, and copy-paste mistakes all count. Tasks where errors have significant downstream consequences (billing errors, compliance violations) score especially high.

Example Walkthrough

Let us score a common healthcare office task: manually entering patient insurance information from faxed forms into the EHR system.

• Repetitive: 5 - Done for every new patient and every insurance change, multiple times per day.
• Rule-based: 4 - The data fields are consistent (policy number, group number, subscriber name, dates). Occasionally a form is illegible or uses an unusual format, but 90% of the time the process is straightforward.
• High-volume: 4 - A busy practice might process 20-40 insurance verifications per day.
• Error-prone: 5 - Transposing digits in a policy number, misspelling a subscriber name, or selecting the wrong insurance plan from a dropdown are common errors that cause claim denials and rework.

Total score: 18 out of 20. This is an excellent automation candidate. Optical character recognition (OCR) combined with EHR integration could handle the bulk of this work, with human review only for low-confidence entries.

Candidates by Department

To get you started, here are common automation candidates organized by department. Score each one for your specific situation, as the numbers will vary based on your volume and current processes.

Front Office and Administration

• Appointment reminder calls, texts, and emails
• New patient intake form processing
• Insurance eligibility verification
• Appointment scheduling from online requests
• Document scanning, naming, and filing
• Phone call routing and after-hours message handling

Billing and Finance

• Invoice generation and delivery
• Payment posting from electronic remittance advice (ERA)
• Claim status checking and follow-up
• Patient statement generation and mailing
• Accounts receivable aging reports
• Credit card payment processing and receipt delivery

Human Resources

• New employee onboarding checklists and account provisioning
• Time-off request routing and approval
• Credential and license expiration tracking
• Annual training assignment and completion tracking
• Employee offboarding and access revocation

IT and Operations

• Backup verification and reporting
• User account creation and deactivation
• Software license tracking and renewal alerts
• System health monitoring and alerting
• Patch deployment scheduling and reporting

Clinical (with appropriate oversight)

• Lab result notification routing
• Prescription refill request processing
• Referral letter generation from templates
• Pre-visit chart preparation checklists
• Post-visit follow-up scheduling

How to Use This Worksheet

1. List your tasks. Spend 30 minutes with each department head. Ask them: "What tasks do you or your team do repeatedly that feel like they should not require a human?" Write down everything, even if it seems minor.
2. Score each task. Use the four criteria above. Be honest. If you are unsure about a score, observe the task being performed a few times before scoring.
3. Rank by total score. Sort your list from highest to lowest. The top five are your starting point.
4. Estimate time savings. For each top candidate, estimate how many hours per week the task currently consumes. Multiply by the loaded hourly cost of the person performing it. This gives you a rough annual cost of doing it manually.
5. Start with one. Pick the highest-scoring task that is also relatively simple to automate. A quick win builds momentum and demonstrates value to the rest of the organization.