In today’s healthcare landscape, where operational efficiency, cost containment, and interoperability are strategic imperatives, Straight-Through Processing (STP) offers a transformative approach to document and data management. While STP has long been a cornerstone of automation in the financial sector, its application in healthcare, especially when applied to document processing, is unlocking tangible efficiency gains across the enterprise.
What is Straight-Through Processing?
Straight-Through Processing refers to the end-to-end automation of workflows, enabling data and documents to move seamlessly from intake to the system of record with minimal human intervention.
Origins in the Financial Sector
STP was first adopted in finance to expedite transactions, reduce errors, and eliminate manual bottlenecks. It enabled institutions to process trades and payments in real time, reducing settlement delays and operational risk.
Relevance to Healthcare
In healthcare, the stakes are even higher. Every delay, errors or gaps in patient information can have impact on the timeliness of care, regulatory compliance, and financial performance. STP brings the same automation principles to healthcare, transforming how organizations manage structured and unstructured data. By improving automation and accuracy in handling clinical documentation, patient records, and other data sources, STP enables more reliable and timely information exchange across care teams and settings. This not only reduces administrative burden but also enhances care coordination and supports smoother transitions of care, supporting providers with access to complete, up-to-date patient information when and where it’s needed most.
Why STP Matters in Healthcare
Healthcare organizations are inundated with data and that data comes from many sources. Staff may receive prior authorization and lab orders via fax, while referrals and patient records may come via Direct Secure Message. Manual triage and data entry slow down operations and introduce risk. STP, when applied to healthcare, delivers measurable value across three critical dimensions:
Time Savings
STP enables real-time processing of incoming documents, from multi-modalities like fax, Direct Secure Messaging, or APIs direct into systems of record such as EHRs. By leveraging Practical AI™ to identify key demographic and clinical data and intelligently route information based on that data, healthcare teams can dramatically reduce time spent on manual intake and data entry. In fact, Concord case studies have shown up to 80% time savings in workflows like medical imaging and medication refill processing.
Cost Reduction
Automating repetitive administrative tasks through STP reduces labor costs and minimizes the need for manual oversight. With configurable workflows and human-in-the-loop feedback mechanisms, organizations can scale automation confidently and engage staff when appropriate, all while maintaining quality and compliance. This shift not only lowers operational expenses but also helps reallocate staff time to higher-value clinical and strategic work.
Improved Interoperability
STP is not just about speed, it’s about precision and connectivity. When structured and unstructured data flows securely and accurately across systems, it facilitates better care coordination, regulatory compliance, and data-driven decision-making. Integration with standards like HL7 and FHIR, as well as modern APIs, is essential to achieving seamless interoperability across the healthcare ecosystem.
Concord Connect™: The Straight-Through Processing Platform for Healthcare
Concord Connect™ is purpose-built to bring STP to healthcare providers, payers, pharma, software vendors and more. It combines secure document exchange, intelligent document processing, and flexible integration capabilities into a unified platform. Whether processing structured data from C-CDA’s or unstructured content from scanned documents, using Concord’s Practical AI™ approach, the platform gets the right data to the right system at the right time.
Key apabilities
- Multi-modal Intake: Digital Fax, Direct Secure Message (DSM), Document Uploads, and more.
- Healthcare AI-Driven Processing: Highly accurate Document Classification, proven demographic and clinical extraction, intelligent routing and configurable workflow routing.
- System Integration: Seamless delivery into EHRs and other systems via HL7/FHIR/API.
- Confidence Scoring: Build trust in Straight-Through Processing automation with transparent AI outputs that allow for staff oversight when necessary.
Empowering Care by Removing Barriers
Straight-Through Processing is a strategic enabler for healthcare organizations. By reducing administrative burden, improving data accuracy, and enhancing interoperability, STP allows healthcare leaders to focus on what matters most: delivering exceptional patient care.
Ready to transform your operations?
Request a consultation and learn how Concord Connect can help your organization apply STP to structured and unstructured data workflows.