Every day, 618 children and young people from across the UK arrive at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) for often-life-saving treatment.
And a new partnership with Epson is enabling medical staff to scan patient charts on site, ensuring the fastest-possible administration of life-saving medication to improve care and treatment times.
It comes as government ministers pledged £250m to set up a national AI lab that could improve England’s health service.
However, smaller investments in modernising the existing technology is a more-immediate solution to the vast amounts of patient information that needs to be generated and processed.
By using seven Epson DS-70000 flatbed A3 network scanners throughout the hospital, GOSH is alleviating pressure on its busy on-site scanning bureau – and ensuring that patients can be treated as soon as possible.
On average, 53 life-changing operations are carried out every day at GOSH.
Post-op, patients are delivered to recovery areas across the hospital, in seven different departments, and are accompanied by a summarising anaesthetic A3 chart – which is where Epson’s scanners come into play.
Previously, each patient chart was sent to the scanning bureau at that point.
Sited in a different building, the bureau processes thousands of documents each day – meaning that a chart can take a substantial amount of time to be scanned and returned to a patient’s bedside.
This can be an issue if the chart was required by the anaesthetist when it was being processed by the scanning bureau.
GOSH decided that a quicker way of scanning was needed, and started the process of sourcing an A3 scanner that could be used throughout the hospital.
“We struggled to find a company that offered a true A3 scanner “, said Kamlesh Tailor, ICO endpoint engineer at the trust.
“Most products double up on A4, which wouldn’t have suited our needs.
“The Epson DS-70000N scanner was the only product we found that could do this. Not only was it perfectly suited for the task, but it was cheaper than we estimated and in fact very cost effective.”
Epson loaned the hospital a scanner for over a month, enabling medical staff to practise using the equipment before GOSH invested in seven units that were then implemented across the hospital.
GOSH now has a scanner in each recovery area so, when a patient arrives, their charts can now be scanned directly in the same location, by a nurse or anaesthetist.
The scan is then delivered instantly via the network to the scanning bureau for further use in all relevant departments.
This means a chart never leaves a patient, and ensures that medication can be administered at any time – and that all relevant staff have real-time access to the most-recent patient information.
Essentially, this takes away the risk of treatment not being given – which could have a fatal impact on patients.
The solution was implemented easily without the need for further training for the 4,000-plus staff on site. It takes three simple button presses to copy the chart and, as a network-ready product, it doesn’t need a connecting PC so there has been no requirement for investment in further technology.
Along with using the seven units currently installed throughout the hospital, GOSH now plans to source a contingency scanner to ensure it has the resource needed to consistently maintain on-site scanning in all key departments.
