NHS Blackpool achieves 100% coverage of Docman and move towards a paper free healthcare

March 7, 2012 - PRLog -- The project involved the deployment of electronic document management, workflow and electronic document transfer (EDT) to all 21 practices in Blackpool, meaning 100% of practices in the area are now using Docman.

This will enable the practices to receive electronic documents from secondary care and instantly workflow them to a clinician. Documents are received into Docman using EDT Connect, enabling practices to remove processes such as scanning, patient matching and have instant access to important clinical information faster. Docman works seamlessly with all major clinical systems making it extremely user friendly for GP’s to use. Using the automation workflow tools within Docman provides further advanced routing options to generate time savings which can be deployed elsewhere.

Practices also received Intellisense, the advanced Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to automate the electronic patient letter filing process and capture important diagnosis and procedure read codes. This will ensure documents are received instantly from hospitals, filed quickly and efficiently with minimal user intervention before entering the GP’s electronic workflow.

The solution includes the recently launched BackOffice suite, providing an intranet and content management solution to facilitate collaborative working, knowledge management and business process management for busy healthcare organisations.

BackOffice Library enables practices to efficiently store, workflow and retrieve all non-patient documents to support the practice. More recently, PCTI launched a series of BackOffice Apps to transform the way they manage their information. The first set of applications available will include the Accident Log, Asset Register, Birth Register, Death Register, Fridge Temperature Log, Practice Feedback, Room Temperature Log, and Significant Events. The BackOffice Apps will allow practices to move away from paper records, notebooks, spreadsheets and simple Access databases to a structured central electronic database record, all accessed through a familiar intuitive user interface.

Louise Gore, IM&T Programme Manager, NHS Blackpool “The main driver behind the project was to deliver timely information to GP practices and to automate the process of receiving correspondence in this way. Practices started to receive discharge summaries electronically but would have to print them off and scan them back into their clinical system.  We quickly recognised that this was unsustainable for practices and a time consuming and costly process, so we looked for an electronic document management system as a solution.”

“Initially we piloted Docman at 2 GP practices and quickly realised the solution was excellent and would deliver all the requirements and benefits we were looking for, we then successfully achieved full coverage across Blackpool. The practices say that Docman has improved the workflow process of all patient documentation and has achieved a process that is efficient and lean in managing their workload and provides GP’s with faster access to the information they need.”

“Previous systems could take practices 3-4 days to scan and attach correspondence into the patient’s clinical record.  With Docman, correspondence is now scanned or delivered into the patients record within 1 working day ensuring clinicians have access to the most up to date correspondence when consulting with patients.”

“The practices love the non-patient BackOffice function within Docman and the ability to see a comprehensive audit trail for both patient letters and non-patient documents.  The audit trail also enables practices to see whether colleagues have read protocols and documents, which is extremely useful as evidence towards the Information Governance toolkit.”

Ric Thompson, Managing Director, PCTI “I am really pleased that all of the practices in Blackpool have joined our 5,500 practices using Docman to save time and benefit from paper free care. It is apparent that there is an ever increasing workload for practices and managing paper is not sustainable if they are to continue providing the highest levels of service.”

“The time between deployment and go live was achieved within a few weeks and now all of the practices in the area are live and benefiting from our software.”