In a move that should dramatically free up more time for clinicians to spend with patients - as well as reducing costs and improving data quality - Wolverhampton Primary Care Trust have announced plans for a major investment in innovative digital pen technology.
More than 600 clinicians across the Trust will use digital pens being supplied by Destiny Wireless plc through a service provider to record their community contacts – over 45,000 per month – on patient activity records printed on digital paper. The data from these records will then be automatically entered into iPM – the Trust’s central electronic patient record system. Destiny has an exclusive relationship with their local service provider (LSP).
Stuart Cooper, Head of IMT strategy at Wolverhampton PCT was especially keen to take a highly proactive approach in helping to meet the need for greater efficiencies and productivity in the public sector, especially in the light of changes to the NHS announced by the new coalition government. He also wanted to increase the emphasis on creating more time for front line patient care. Stuart saw this initiative is an ideal fit with the QIPP agenda currently being pursued by the NHS.
The choice of digital pen technology from Destiny followed a year-long process during which the Trust carried out a thorough competitive review, combined with practical research and testing to ensure that the benefits they envisaged would be fully realised. The successful use of the same technology by Derbyshire Mental Health Trust provided a valuable benchmark.
Until recently, all of Wolverhampton PCT’s clinicians recorded community contact information on a paper diary, and then either re-entered it themselves on iPM, or passed it to an administration clerk to input. This manual process took up to five days or even longer, and consumed time that could be better spent with patients. Laptops were trialled as a potential way of speeding things up, but not pursued because of problems with inconsistent 3G coverage - as well the associated costs and support that was required.
With the Destiny system, clinicians will use digital pens based on Anoto Technology to write out their forms in the normal way – just like conventional pen and paper, and with little or no need for any training or change to working practices. The forms are automatically time and date stamped. With the option of reviewing and verifying key data at the point of entry, the clinicians then follow a simple docking process using the pen’s built-in USB connection and a PC router to automatically transmit the recorded data. Destiny software residing on servers at the service provider’s secure NHS data centre converts the handwriting into text using Visionobjects Handwriting Recognition software. This is then transmitted back to the Trust’s iPM patient record system as a pdf copy of the original form, and as an xml data file. All this happens in less than a minute after docking. Administrators can also review and edit any forms if needed via Destiny’s secure online Manage service.
In addition to freeing up time for patient care - around one hour per day for each member of clinical staff - the Trust expects to be able to reduce administration time and cost, especially through fast, automatic data entry. The filing, storage and shredding of paper copies of records will also be greatly reduced. Service planning will be improved, and patient records will be updated much more quickly and accurately.
The first phase of the programme will see the new system initially being used for up to two months by district nurses from November 2010. It will then be rolled out right across the many service areas of the Trust including Community (INR, matrons, continence, district nursing, hospital at home and out of hours nursing), AHPs (physiotherapy, SLT and OT elderly care), Children and Family (children’s nursing, health visiting and school nursing) and CICT rehab. The plan is to have rolled out to all 600 clinicians by the first quarter of 2011.
Chris Ragdale, senior project manager, said: “The form design uses a lot of tick boxes rather than relying on lengthy writing so the process is faster and more accurate. Verification within the forms should mean they’re right first time – and our data quality team can look at any rejected ones and quickly validate or correct them. We can already see real benefits in the future for new areas like assessments.”
Kam Rai, the Trust’s clinical programme manager, added: ”We’re getting a positive response already as people see how simple digital pens are to use, and how they save time both for clinical and admin staff. They’re much quicker and easier than laptops and less of a barrier with patients.”
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