The latest annual report for Mid and South Essex Community Collaborative has been published, highlighting some of the key digital projects and initiatives to have impacted on health and care in the region over the last 12 months, which have focused on the digitalisation of processes and enhancing the way EPR systems are used and interacted with.
One of these digital projects is Autoplanner, which has been used to automate the scheduling of visits and enable remote access to records. According to the report, evidence of improvements from the initiative includes the “enormous change” in the amount of time taken to schedule visits, with a reduction from 532.5 hours per week to 40 hours per week of nursing time being spent on this activity.
Another of the featured digital projects is Dragon One dictation, a solution which allows nurses to dictate directly into clinical records, and to “control the Electronic Patient Record (EPR) with their voice”. The aim of this project was to improve staff wellbeing by supporting them in reducing “unclaimed hours” from record keeping, and although the report states that it is “too early to say if this has affected staff retention”, this is a metric that will be monitored moving forward.
The report also discusses how technology and better data are helping to boost frailty services in the region, leading to the development of a Frailty Hotline Service, a Frailty, End of Life and Dementia assessment tool, an Electronic Frailty Care Coordination system;, and a frailty virtual ward. According to some of the statistics shared, outcomes from these initiatives include a saving of 13,920 bed days, and a saving of “nearly £500,000 per month”.
To read the report in full, please click here.
In related news, Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust published a digital strategy action plan late last year, bringing together its digital strategy and plans for an EPR.
In January, we spoke to Matthew Hopkins, chief executive at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, about current digital priorities and ambitions around digital transformation.
