Roundwood Surgery is a modern, forward-thinking practice that services 12,000 patients yearly in Mansfield and Forrest Town, Nottinghamshire. Here is how the practice managed to resolve a “document creation nightmare” and eject tapes from surgery altogether with a Crescendo digital dictation and transcription system.
In 2007, as part of their drive to improve efficiency and patient service, Roundwood started to investigate technologies to boost their document delivery. Doctors would dictate multiple letters and notes on a tape and manually pass it on to the secretary for transcription. Ann-Marie Kerr, Practice/IT Administrator explains:
“Too much time was wasted driving to and from the branch surgery to deliver and pick up tapes, not to mention the problems caused by poor sound quality, jammed and broken tapes.”
The surgery was also looking to eliminate delays due, once again, to the limitations inherent to analogue dictation such as the difficulty to prioritise work and locate urgent work in the middle of a tape.
THE PILOT
After further investigation, Roundwood decided to pilot DigiScribe-XL from Crescendo, taking advantage of their unique IP streaming technology to resolve what Ann-Marie called their “document creation nightmare.” With DigiDictate-IP, doctors can now dictate in real-time, as Dr. Nick Glover points out:
“As soon as I complete a dictation, whether I am working in Mansfield or Forrest Town, it immediately appears on the secretary’s DigiPlayer-IP work list. I don’t have to wait until the end of my shift to submit my tapes, nor do I have to drive to town to deliver my dictations.”
By default, all reports are transcribed in the order that they were generated, no matter who dictated them. The doctors can however, choose to prioritise urgent work which is then highlighted for the secretary. On the transcription side, “the difference in sound quality is like chalk and cheese,” admits Tara Ilic, medical secretary:
“With such a high quality of sound, it is much easier to get a transcription right the first time. Since I started using DigiPlayer-IP, it is rare to have to re-play a voice file or ask a doctor for explanations,” adds Tara.
OUTPERFORMING EXPECTATIONS
Following the success of the pilot project, Roundwood decided to roll-out DigiScribe-XL to all remaining doctors in order to centralise and accelerate the production of medical reports across their two surgery practices.Physicians welcome the use of their new digital system as a key step forward in enhancing the service to their patients.
“The Crescendo system has dramatically reduced our document delivery times, particularly from the branch surgery, therefore improving our patient care and satisfaction,” explains Ann-Marie.
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