Coastal Medical Group supports 32,500 patients with Docman
Coastal Medical Group in Morecambe utilises Docman to electronically manage, workflow and collaborate on more than 750,000 patient documents electronically
The Coastal Medical Group in Morecambe is using Docman to electronically manage, workflow and collaborate on more than 750,000 patient documents electronically.
There is no need to move paper around and because we are over three sites it is really important that we are electronic in what we do
The practice, based over three sites, serves a patient list of 32,500 and receives around 430 patient letters each day from secondary care providers. Discharge Summaries and A&E reports are now received electronically into Docman sent from University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust through the trust’s Docman Hub.
Docman Hub enables secondary care providers to send all of their clinical correspondence electronically. Delivering letters into Docman the practice’s electronic document management system provides many benefits including no scanning, auto patient matching, the timely delivery of patient information, and significant ROI.
Debbie Bland, scanning/coding clerk, said: “We receive letters electronically from the local hospitals and through the post, the electronic letters are sent from Docman Hub to us and are delivered directly into Batch Manager in Docman for filing and onward workflow.”
“One of our team mentioned one day it took them two hours to open and date stamp letters received in the post. The letters we receive electronically arrive every two hours, whereas letters through the post are typically received a day later, but we have seen letters arrive a week later through the post.”
Intuitive workflow
The practice then utilises electronic workflow to send the letters around its sites to the relevant department, group or GP.
Dr Andy Foster said: “The quick steps in iWorkflow are the best thing about the system. It enables us to process workflows much quicker than before. The system acts as our electronic in-tray for us to process workflows across any of our sites rather than having to go somewhere to collect the paper letter. The system works really well for us in sending electronic letters around our practice and quickly processing them.”
iWorkflow is the very latest in next-generation electronic document workflow. It incorporates intelligent routing based on assigned actions which streamline the creation and processing of workflows. iWorkflow provides practices with huge measurable efficiencies and frees up valuable time for healthcare professionals and administrative staff.
Intelligent summarising
Bland said: “Summarising using Intellisense is a key part of the system for our practice. We highlight the letter and Intellisense detects the code, making a real difference for us to have the complete quality of data and confidence in our summarising process. By using Docman for our processes and summarising we have a complete audit trail of all actions taken.”
Intellisense is an advanced clinical content recognition system that automatically detects patient and filing details, significantly improving summarising and the speed and data quality of filing into the patient’s clinical record.
Complete practice management
Utilising our Docman Hub solution at an NHS trust drives even greater benefits for practices to remove the time wasted opening and scanning post, but also delivering information to the point of care faster
Janet Taylor, IM&T/H&S/QOF manager, said: “The system works really well for us. There is no need to move paper around and because we are over three sites it is really important that we are electronic in what we do.”
“For such a large practice like ours with 100 desktop PCs and 23 GPs it is vital we have back office processes that underpin our practice and support us delivering the best service for our patients.”
Ric Thompson, managing director of Docman added: “When a practice starts using Docman they quickly see the benefits in time savings and data quality with the system underpinning the practice’s data and security of information. Utilising our Docman Hub solution at an NHS trust drives even greater benefits for practices to remove the time wasted opening and scanning post, but also delivering information to the point of care faster.”
