Isle of Wight makes progress on paperless journey

Published: 22-Oct-2013

PCTI clinical correspondence hub deployed in 17 GP practices


The Isle of Wight NHS Trust is now sending discharge summaries and A&E letters electronically through PCTI’s clinical correspondence hub to 17 practices on the island.

The solution is part of the trust’s objective to become paperless and to send all clinical documentation to practices electronically.

We previously sent discharge summaries and A&E letters by email or post, which was a clunky and manual process

PCTI’s Electronic Document Transfer (EDT) Hub integrates with the trust’s electronic patient record (EPR) to enable an electronic letter to be transferred to the GP practice once a clinician or user clicks the complete button.

The letter is transferred seamlessly to the GP practice, automated by ‘meta-data’ to pre-populate the filing fields before being electronically workflowed around the practice utilising Docman’s intuitive one-click workflow system.

Barbara Gove, IM&T project manager at Isle of Wight NHS Trust, said: “We previously sent discharge summaries and A&E letters by email or post, which was a clunky and manual process. To send an A&E letter would mean we would have to batch print to a folder, a receptionist every evening would sort and change them to a PDF, before going on to sending them by email to a GP practice. This was a manual and time-consuming process. Now in the EPR the document is created and a doctor clicks the complete button and the letter is sent to the GP practice and delivered into Docman when the practice schedules to do so. This ensures we deliver these letters to GP practices in an efficient and timely manner.

“The postal method would mean a letter is printed and transferred in our internal mail process to the mail room to then be collected and delivered to GP practices. We have seen a reduction in the paper we send to practices and GP practices have benefited by removing the need to handle paper because of the electronic process.

“Overall the benefits to the practice are huge. By enabling information to be delivered into Docman, workflowed around the practice, and electronically coded, all without the need for paper, saves a lot of time and improves processes.”

We have seen a reduction in the paper we send to practices and GP practices have benefited by removing the need to handle paper because of the electronic process

Sarah Sharp, information systems manager at St Mary's Hospital on the Isle of Wight, added: “Patients benefit because their discharge information is delivered on time to a GP. This enables the practice to respond quickly to the letter and all stakeholders have the knowledge the letter has been transferred safely and securely. This has a particular benefit if there is a note attached to the letter that would need actioning the following day.

“We now plan to extend our use of the EDT Hub even further to deliver more clinical correspondence to practices on the island and further afield. This will greatly improve our efficiency and reduce our carbon footprint.”

And Ric Thompson, managing director of PCTI, told BBH : “Delivering clinical correspondence electronically across a health community is making a considerable impact in driving efficiencies and lowering costs. 100 NHS trusts have adopted EDT Hub to facilitate their health economy in becoming paperless and driving improved patient care without the time-consuming back-office process of handling patient letters inefficiently.”

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