The outcomes of patient appointments in outpatients at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT) are now being recorded digitally.
Clinicians now use a digital outpatients form (eOutcome) for recording the outcome of appointments. The system reduces the need for staff across the hospitals to fill in forms as the system links and communicates automatically with the Trust’s Lorenzo Electronic Patient Record System (EPR).
Under the old process. staff would have to transcribe up to approximately 2,500 outcomes a day.
Benefits of the new systems include:
- A time saving of over 1,000 minutes per day (approximately one minute per outcome) – freeing up reception clerks to support patients more directly
- eOutcome links to the EPR system improving efficiency
- Limits user error and improved quality of data.
Approximately 530,763 people attended outpatient appointments between April 2018 and March 2019.
Andrea Nightingale, Booking and Reception Team Leader, said: “Feedback from my team has been fantastic. The new system is really valuable as it is allowing my team to spend more time with patients giving them greater opportunity to ask questions and feedback on the service.”
‘Foluke Ajayi, Chief Operating Officer, UHMBT, said: “By moving this process onto a digital system, we are not only saving time which can be used to improve experience for those patients using our outpatients, we are also improving efficiency and the quality of our data.”