Why does Transfer of Care matter?
- 14 September 2017
- Posted in: Healthcare
Transfer of Care is a crucial issue for the NHS. Not only is it an NHS contract requirement that can see Trusts penalised 1% of their turnover if they fail to meet it, but it is fundamentally about patient care.
With a hectic paramedic handover into urgent care and 4-hour waiting times increasingly becoming the norm, we could be forgiven for thinking this is just the reality of a cash-strapped, over-stretched NHS.
Does it have to be, though?
Why are paramedics forced to write notes on the backs of their gloves to ensure they don't forget vital information during a handover?
Why do doctors have to sit at a computer typing up reams of information before they can electronically hand over care, either to the in-patient department or discharge their patient back to the GP's care?
These are all good questions, but the answer is very simple: fit-for-purpose informatics. But what does that mean?
Thanks to advancements in speech recognition and mobile technologies, notes can now be taken hands free in even the most remote, noisy environments. Systems can be integrated together so that when a patient is ready for a transfer of care, any or all of the related correspondence/documentation can be completed automatically. If these can be done in real time at point of care, there will no longer be a need for healthcare professionals to try to remember what was said or to look for scraps of notes - in other words, correspondence processes are simple and smooth, taking the stress away and allowing healthcare professionals to concentrate on providing care to their patients. With quick turnarounds meeting the government's required performance indicators, but more importantly the transfer of care being done immediately, a patient can rest assured that the next clinician in the care pathway will have accurate information as and when they need it.
Through innovation and collaboration, companies like G2 Speech are at the forefront of an ecosystem that meets the modern challenges of the NHS on accuracy, value for money, improved patient flow and increased usage of NHS services.
The G2 Speech enterprise platform, SpeechReport, provides a fully automated workflow with advanced speech recognition technology. SpeechReport helps to streamline correspondence processes. The solution supports Trusts, hospitals and Health Boards by helping them create, correct and manage all of their documentation in one central location.
SpeechReport allows paramedics to use speech recognition to take notes during triage. It allows a seamless integration between different workflows and patient flows, resulting in a quicker handover.
The platform has the ability to drastically reduce the time spent drafting A&E paperwork through the use of speech recognition and structured clinical coding (including natural language coding); it can distribute the information back to the GP (via GP Connect) or to other clinical providers (via Care Connect), or integrate it into a hospital's/Trust's clinical systems.
In an in-patient department, with the use of G2 Mobile (which is part of the SpeechReport solution), a patient's wristband can be scanned (meeting the 'Scan4Safety' requirements) to allow for a dictation relating to this particular patient to be done at bedside; with the aid of speech recognition, a completed transcribed document can then be ready for review and sign off before the ward rounds are even completed.
Our SpeechReport platform has helped many busy hospitals, Trusts and Health Boards achieve efficiencies, increase productivity, reduce costs and improve security, both organisation-wide and within individual departments such as A&E. Among the organisations we have assisted is Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
If you would like further information about how G2 Speech can assist your hospital in improving Transfer of Care, please do not hesitate to contact a member of our team, who will be happy to provide a free demonstration of our digital dictation, speech recognition and workflow management solution. Please contact us on 0208 555 9041 or at marketing@g2speech.com. Our platform is also available in the cloud.
Advice and tips on how digital dictation and speech recognition can be used efficiently to improve the delivery of healthcare services can be found in our blogs section.
