Docman is pleased to announce the Greater Manchester Electronic Clinical Correspondence project has sent its one millionth electronic letter.
The innovative project covering 14 NHS Trusts and 503 GP practices is using technology to support and improve the process of sending clinical correspondence from Hospitals to GP practices across the Greater Manchester area.
The typical cost of sending a physical letter from secondary to primary care is between fifty pence and one pound. The electronic project is delivering this information in real-time to GPs and removes the paper process of transferring and processing paper letters.
The project has enabled the electronic production and delivery of key hospital letters that are sent to GP Practices including A&E attendance, In-Patient Discharge and Out-Patient Discharge and covers practices in the below CCGs:
- Bolton
- Bury
- HMR
- Manchester North
- Manchester Central
- Manchester South
- Oldham
- Salford
- Stockport
- Tameside & Glossop
- Trafford
- Wigan
Greater Manchester Commissioning Support Unit is leading on the roll-out of the project on behalf of the local healthy economy. GMCSU works in partnership with commissioners, secondary care providers and local authorities providing support for a wide range of tailored services including specialist clinical support, healthcare commissioning, business support services – and IT.
Daniel Alexander, Project Manager, at GMCSU: “The project has been a real driver in strengthening the relationship between CCGs and Trusts. It is a huge project that is unique in its kind of having a joined-up approach across many provider organisations. Reaching one million electronic letters is a fantastic milestone for supporting our health economy in being efficient in what it does and removing the unnecessary costs that arise with handling and moving paper around.”
“Notably, Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is sending 60,000 electronic letters each month. The project is set to expand further with more and more correspondence to be sent electronically.”
“As part of the project, practices across the region were provided with Docman, the market leading electronic document management system used by 6,000 practices nationally. The system enables the electronic letters sent from secondary care organisations to be delivered directly into a practice’s electronic business process for managing hospital letters.”
“The second phase of the project includes connecting Mental Health Trusts and Community Service Providers to the electronic correspondence network. Phase three of the project will further open this to private healthcare organisations.”
“A key driver of the project was to deliver patient letters securely to GP practices in timescales that really make a difference. Joining up each of the organisation’s Hubs brings us another step closer to becoming paperless.”
Ric Thompson, Managing Director, Docman “It is fantastic that this project has reached an initial milestone of sending one million electronic letters through our Docman Hub. It is great to see such a joined up approach from GM involving the whole health economy, this project is not only delivering massive savings, its improving the care patients receive. I am certainly looking forward to the next milestone of five million letters.”
The Greater Manchester Electronic Clinical Correspondence Project will be presented at EHI Live 2014 as part of the Best Practice Showcase Theatre. For more information email marketing@docman.com