North Bristol NHS Trust has installed CCube Solutions’ electronic document management software (EDMS) to replace all paper case notes with an easy to use digital system providing instant access to patient medical records for 6,000 clinicians, nursing and administrative staff.
The introduction of EDMS is part of the Trust’s phased Electronic Patient Record (EPR) strategy and will facilitate a more timely and extensive move towards creating a paperlite environment which also involves developing its EPR to reduce the amount of paper created on a daily basis.
This will ensure that one of the largest hospitals in the UK serving people in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire is paper free at the point of care – a key NHS England and Government goal.
The new EDMS will enhance clinical effectiveness, reduce operational costs, ensure compliance with CQC guidance about records and data management, and ultimately boost patient safety and care.
“HTN Awards 2017 showcased many fantastic health tech projects across secondary care, primary care and CCGs. We were really impressed with the North Bristol NHS Trust and CCube Solutions project demonstrating fantastic savings and supporting information at the point of care for thousands of professionals; very much in line with the Five Year Forward View” said Sean White, Editor, Health Tech Newspaper.
Capital expenditure on the CCube EDMS, scanners along with other implementation costs total £960,000.
Over a four-year period, the Trust expects to save over £1.3 million in terms of the operational expenditure associated with the running of its paper-based processes and libraries.
The cost savings come from closing the off-site facilities – expected by October 2018.
White adds, “The HTN Network is growing fast and reaches over 9,000 healthcare professionals across secondary care, primary care and CCGs. I am delighted to announce this project has been highly commended. Well done to everyone involved in this project.”
Paper creates huge logistical challenges
Currently North Bristol NHS Trust stores about 1.2 million medical folders off-site, with around 850 files being delivered to Southmead Hospital and other premises each day. The paperlite strategy will reduce costs and make the process more efficient.
The business case for the EDMS project is predicated on a scan-on-demand model where only the patient notes for people booked to attend clinic will be processed, not everything in the library. This saves a huge amount of money given the other records will be destroyed in line with the Trust’s retention policies and procedures as and when they reach their expiry dates.
Out of its total of 1.2 million folders, the Trust therefore estimates that it has 223,1o0 active patients who will need their records scanning. As each folder contains on average 150 sheets, this means 33,465,000 pages are likely to be scanned in total. The massive back scanning task will be outsourced to a scanning specialist.
Roll out will be staged with a paperlite project running in parallel
In parallel, the Trust is working on a paperlite project to augment the investment in its EPR system. To date, PAS 1 functionality has been successfully implemented within the EPR with this now expanding to include real-time data capture. The Trust will customise it to its own requirements, tailoring the system to match its own clinical pathways and ways of working.
The purpose of the paperlite project is to look at how clinical information is immediately captured at the point of care rather than staff writing notes on paper and then scanning them afterwards as this clearly defeats the purpose of putting in an EPR in the first place.
Vijay Magon, CCube Solutions’ managing director, says:
Winning awards is hugely important. It demonstrates third party endorsement of our software and project implementations. And ultimately, of course, Trusts doing great things in the NHS to improve patient care.”
