Kodak Alaris Information Management and partner, Insight, have successfully tendered to provide University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB), one of 16 Global Digital Exemplar (GDE) acute trusts, with a fast and efficient scanning solution.
As part of its goal to exploit the potential of digital technologies to better engage with patients and enhance care quality; UHB selected Kodak Alaris to assist them in driving internal efficiencies by improving the quality and accessibility of patient health records to clinicians.
Kodak Alaris evaluated the trust’s existing processes for scanning patient referrals into its content management platform and proposed a solution that would enable frontline medical staff to capture and file relevant content at their desktop.
Kodak Alaris recommended integrating the capture function within line of business systems to remove complexity.
With the new solution, instead of passing hard copy documents onto a third party for scanning and filing in the correct place, a process which typically has a 24-48-hour lead time, the clinician can now capture and file in real-time.
The solution is powered by an Info Input scan button app within the UHB’s existing IBM Coach Web portal that is connected to the trust’s current mixed vendor fleet of scanners that includes Kodak i2400 and i40 mid-volume production models.
Kodak Info Input Solution is a web-based and mobile capture application that is easy for workers to implement and use.
Using the embedded scan button and a connected scanner, staff have the ability to digitise paper documents and upload the digital records into its legacy EMC Documentum content management system right at the beginning of the patient’s journey.
The Info Input software determines the document type for correct processing after scanning and converts all scanned digital uploads to a bi-tonal searchable PDF file format. Furthermore, document images and subsequent metadata input via the trust’s IBM Coach application is stored in the relevant patient folder located in the UHB’s 7.1 EMC Documentum system.
Steve Clarke, healthcare solutions manager at Kodak Alaris Information Management, said: “Clinicians faced with a myriad of hard copy documents from referral letters, medical history, test results to medical charts, are in many instances reliant on the back-office scanning function to capture the information and file it in the correct place, a process which inevitably takes time and can potentially be error prone.
“Embedding capture technology within UHB’s line of business application will improve efficiency around patient onboarding and registration, assisting the trust in its journey to digitise healthcare records and improve patient care, by making information available faster.”
Kodak Alaris will project manage the rollout, ensure end-user interfaces meet requirements in terms of usability and accessibility, as well as provide technical support and training to the trust’s technical staff that will include managing the scan applet within the existing IT infrastructure and configuring the scanners, ensuring the smooth operation of the solution across the contract term.
