Case study: successful implementation of e-form in a busy hospital

Paperwork in the healthcare sector can feel like an interminable burden. Here at Voice Technologies, that’s one of many issues we’re striving to solve.

One of the best examples of our work in this sector was our role in reducing NHS Ayrshire & Arran’s admin clerical support time by 20%.

Here’s how we helped thousands of hospital staff improve their record keeping, and increase their productivity.

Labour intensive processes in the NHS

Across NHS Ayrshire & Arran hospitals, which employ over 9,000 staff, every pre-op assessment used to be carried out via a paper proforma. That paper proforma would then be filed away in case notes. Any time it was to be reviewed or updates to the case notes were required, the physical document would need to be manually pulled. Naturally, this took time, and was far more labour intensive and costly than it needed to be.

Inefficiency has long been an issue in the NHS and, in recent years, they’ve put more of an onus on streamlining their processes. In this instance, it was clear that a paper-lite solution to pre-op documentation was required.

At this stage, NHS Ayrshire & Arran reached out to us, in the hopes that we could transform their paper process into an electronic form (e-form).

Pre-op assessment online e-form

We designed a one-page reporting e-form that could be easily accessed via our web-based e-forms application, FormStream. This e-form completely replaced the needless paper forms. All data entered into the forms is saved, processed, and uploaded to NHS Ayrshire & Arran systems. It’s instantaneous- and fully encrypted. Once verified, the e-form can then be found on the Clinical Portal within the patient’s medical record.

The rollout of our FormStream e-form was monumental for the staff. Fiona King, POA Manager for the NHS Ayrshire & Arran, said that it had “revolutionised” their service.

Below, we’ll be taking a closer look at the ways in which the NHS benefited from our support.

Increased productivity

The most notable benefit of the FormStream e-form was an increase in productivity. NHS Ayrshire & Arran reported that their admin clerical support requirements dropped by 0.5 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE). This was largely due to the fact that it was no longer necessary to manually file, or pull, physical forms. Prep time prior to patient attendance dropped considerably, as did the anaesthetic review time.

With less time required for tedious tasks, NHS staff have been freed up to focus on more pressing patient care. It can also help avoid unnecessary delays, which is crucial now more than ever in the health sector.

More accurate documentation

FormStream also allows data like dates, times, and names to be automatically populated. This greatly improved record keeping and legibility, and cut down on the risk of human error.

Ongoing patient interactions and remote review

The pre-op assessment team can now maintain contact with patients who have been medically deferred, and keep them updated in the meantime. As well as this, the multidisciplinary team (MDT) can review patient notes from any device, and from any location.

Should your business be using FormStream?

Each e-form created for FormStream is specifically designed to achieve what your business is looking to achieve. They make the process in question as simple as possible, without being over--engineered. Before the e-form is developed, our software specialists spend time getting to grips with your existing workflow, to ensure the e-form will be suitably tailored to your needs.

To get started on reducing the time and cost of producing your correspondence, book a consultation today by calling on 0141 847 5610 or email enquiries@voicetechnologies.co.uk