How to Choose the Right Healthcare Automation Software

A Guide for Outpatient Practices

Choosing automation software for your outpatient practice can feel overwhelming. Between new tools promising AI-driven transformation and your team still juggling spreadsheets, it’s hard to know which solution will actually move the needle and which will become just another dashboard to manage.

In this guide, we’ll help you simplify your search by breaking down the three main categories of automation software in healthcare.

First: Know What You’re Really Solving For

Most software shopping journeys go wrong because practices start by comparing features, when they should start by clarifying their problem.

In outpatient care, that problem often sounds like this: “We’re missing quality bonuses because care gaps slip through the cracks and our EHR reports don’t help us fix it.”

If that’s your reality, then the right automation platform shouldn’t just streamline admin work. It should:

• Surface at-risk patients without manual chart review
• Launch evidence-based workflows without requiring an ops team to build them
• Prove ROI in under 30 days

Let’s look at how most practices try to solve this.

Option 1: Status Quo (EHR + Spreadsheets + Manual Review)

Pros:

• You already own the tools
• Your staff knows how to use them

Cons:

• Hours spent clicking through charts to find care gaps
• Data lives in silos (EHR, Excel, maybe a third-party analytics platform)
• ROI is invisible (until it’s too late)

This patchwork works when you’re small, but it doesn’t scale. The moment you open a second location or take on a risk contract, it collapses under its own weight.

Option 2: No-Code Workflow Builders (e.g., Keragon)

Pros:

• Drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to use
• Fast to launch an automation

Cons:

• Automation becomes a second full-time job
• Your ops team has to decide which patients receive the automation
• Your ops team has to maintain the automation logic
• Your ops team has to manage dashboards
• Financial ROI is unclear

These tools are great for IT-led automation projects, but they weren’t built for overworked clinical or quality teams. They reduce admin, but don’t drive clinical or financial outcomes fast enough.

Option 3: Custom Development (e.g., Awell Health)

Pros:

• Fully tailored to your specs
• Deep integration with your internal systems

Cons:

• $150–300K+ per project
• 3–6 months to deploy each workflow
• Every clinical guideline change means a new Statement of Work (SOW)

Custom solutions can be powerful but for outpatient practices without engineering teams, they’re often too slow and too expensive to justify.

So Where Does MedFlow Fit?

MedFlow was purpose-built for multi-site outpatient practices that:

• Don’t have data scientists
• Don’t have extra admin headcount to “run automation”

If that’s you, then automation isn’t about cutting clerical costs; it’s your single biggest lever for growth.

Whether it’s closing HEDIS care gaps or capturing quality bonuses, automation should generate revenue, not just save clicks. That’s why MedFlow comes with:

• AI-driven Cohort Detection — surfaces at-risk patients overnight
• 120+ Prebuilt Workflows — launch in 7 days, not 7 months
• Real-Time ROI Dashboards — prove payback in under 30 days

In short, we collapsed four disconnected point solutions — data science, workflow builders, EHR clicks, and finance reporting — into one platform that sits inside your EHR.

The Bottom Line

When evaluating automation software, don’t just ask: “What features does it have?”

Ask: “What results does it deliver—with the team I have today?”

If your goal is to close care gaps, increase billables, and do it without hiring more staff—then MedFlow may be the best-fit automation engine for your practice.

Want to see it in action? Book a demo here.