“I regularly speak with other practices and discuss Docman.”
Processing approximately 150 letters per day, the surgery uses Docman as a complete electronic document management, collaboration and workflow system. Cheryl highlights “At the moment we process at least 150 letters per day, but that can sometimes be in excess of 200.” The initial decision to implement Docman was because it was a popular document management tool with many of the Hampshire practices using it.
iWorkflow
Cheryl discusses the quick step function in iWorkflow which takes multiple click actions and processes and turns them into one simple click to speed up the processing and creation of workflows. “We recently had some refresher training on iWorkflow and it was really helpful. We really like the quick steps; it’s so easy to just add a comment and send letters to the right people to action.”
“Before there were so many clicks involved with sending a letter back to the right person, but now it’s so easy to just forward the document to them with a free text comment. It’s a lot more convenient.”
BackOffice
BackOffice Library enables practices to efficiently store, workflow and retrieve all
non-patient documents to support the practice, while BackOffice Apps help practices to manage important CQC information and move away from paper records and notebooks.
“Now that we have the BackOffice module, I like that I can drag documents into Library and tag them so I can easily find them.”
“I really like the global address book; we will be using this throughout the practice. We can use it to save us lots of time because only certain people in the practice keep certain numbers, for example, the receptionist will have the list of numbers for all the hospitals and the nurse will have the list of all the community teams. This would mean if we needed to ring someone, we’d need to figure out who would have the number and go and find them to get it, causing problems if certain people were off.”
“I also really like the search function within the address book; it saves so much time searching for numbers.”
Intellisense
Intellisense is an advanced Optical Character Recognition (OCR) engine that automatically detects patient and filing details, significantly improving the speed and data quality of filing into the patient’s clinical record.
“We use Intellisense to help with our read coding. From a data quality perspective, Docman really provides a failsafe solution. I like that it shows us a list of codes and we can choose which one we want to use.”
“We’re looking forward to the enhanced Intellisense being released later in the year which should make coding even more accurate.”
EDT Connect
EDT Connect enables Practices to receive electronic documents automatically into Docman for filing and workflow. Documents can enter workflow instantaneously ensuring systems are completely up-to-date with all patient episodes providing a knowledgeable and informed service to patients.
“At the moment we receive letters from University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust and Princess Anne Hospital. We receive discharge summaries, A&E and Unscheduled Care reports electronically. Practices in our area are looking forward to starting to receive out of hours reports and more documents electronically.”
“Thanks to EDT, when a patient phones to see if their discharge summary has arrived yet we can change their medication straight away. With previous processes it could have taken a couple of weeks.”
“Waiting for Consultants letters would usually take between 3-4 weeks and would often be faster for the patient to bring the letter to the practice for it to be actioned. The last thing a patient wants is to be in hospital and then have to come directly to their GPs to make sure that they receive the letter on time. Often patients would have to send family or friends to bring their letter. EDT is much more convenient.”
“Receiving the letters electronically gives me peace of mind that we will always receive the letter and it comes in so much quicker and clearer. Previously it could be a task in itself just trying to decipher the Doctors’ handwriting.”
Docman
“The audit trail in Docman is so easy to find and very detailed.”
“In Docman, I can always find out about the latest updates through the news page and although I have to carry out updates manually, I always know what changes and improvements are going to be made.”
“I also like that within Docman there is a link to take me straight to NHS Mail. This makes it much easier to search my emails and quickly check things whilst I am within Docman.”
“Overall we are very happy with Docman. It is very user friendly and we can definitely see the time savings it offers our busy practice.”
“I regularly speak with other practices and discuss Docman.”