We recently met with Laurelle Morgan-Bruce, Programme Manager and Melony James, Clinical Transformation – Project Manager at Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust to discuss their progress with the G2 Speech system. The Trust provides local NHS services in south London and Kent.
They provide a wide range of health and social care services in South East London, specialising in community health, mental health and learning disability services. The Trust has a workforce of around 3,500 people including many highly skilled health and social care professionals. They have over 122 sites in a variety of locations across the London Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley and Greenwich and into Kent.
G2 Speech has been working with Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust now since February 2014. The Trust is utilising SpeechReport provided by G2 Speech which operates on the speech recognition technology created by Recognosco. The Recognosco platform is built on the core Microsoft speech recognition technology.
The Trust has implemented the SpeechReport solution across the Children’s Services Directorate. Since the implementation the Trust has realised some of the real potential that speech recognition technologies has to offer. The Trust currently has 168 licences in use and is anticipating expansion Trust-wide to four more directorates over the coming year.
The biggest difference the Trust has seen is the turnaround times. These have reduced significantly. Laurelle said: When the Trust were first looking at implementing a new way of working, staff were all using analogue tapes or typing. There were some areas that needed to make improvements in the time taken to produce and circulate documentation and this was resulting in the Trust not reaching their targets on turnaround times. The Trust introduced the SpeechReport system and 99% of the documents are now reaching their turnaround times. It hasn’t all been plain sailing though Laurelle and Mel explained: “When the system was first introduced there were a few cynics. They were very anti-change and feared the new way of working. After a couple of months of working with the software though, they now wouldn’t be without it.”
One user, Cath Wheeler, Secretary explained: “Now that I’m used to using the system, I wouldn’t be without it! It’s so much easier to use and makes my life far simpler. Like anything there were a few teething problems but it was so worth it. I can now fly through documents!”
The Trust has benefited from the use of standardised templates, creating a professional, consistent approach to documentation. They have also managed to introduce a no printing policy with the use of electronic signatures, saving time and money on unnecessary printing.
The Trust is looking to digitise in various ways to create efficiencies. They are also looking at rolling out iPads to help create further cost and time savings. Benefits include: community working, making notes into the clinical system whilst on the go ensuring that the most up to date information is available to everyone and paperless meetings.
Training on the system provided by G2 Speech was carried out over various stages. Mel explained: “The Oxleas Project Team was trained using the software and this knowledge was then shared with clinicians. A large proportion of training was carried out by myself and our Project Support Officer Nicky, on a 1-2-1 basis with Consultants and in groups for some Secretaries.”
She went on to explain: “As each department operates very differently we found that it was best to split the roll out into different phases. One of the most important phases being the discovery phase, it’s at this point that we find out who is creating documents and exactly what their process is for doing this. We then used this information to set up working groups. These groups are established to create plans for the project and to work alongside the G2 Speech staff to ensure smooth implementation.”
Things are progressing at the Trust very well. Over 100 users are now utilising front-end recognition which is enabling further efficiencies. The Trust has put together various business cases to evidence the efficiencies being made. The Trust has demonstrated that, with a good dictation style, over 54% of time has been saved using speech recognition compared to straight forward digital dictation. Imagine the savings and difference that efficiency can make to a team over a year!
Below is a recording that has been taken which demonstrates the difference between using speech recognition as opposed to just regular digital dictation:
Click here to view the table in a larger format
Speaking about working with G2 Speech, Laurelle said: “I would recommend the solution to other healthcare professionals but I would definitely stress the importance of the discovery phase. Find out exactly what your users want – never assume one size fits all. Also for us, buy in from Management has been key. It’s so beneficial to have that top down support to ensure that people try new technologies. There will be pain at first but the long term gain is without doubt worth it.”
Project Requirements
- Need to move into the 21st century with the latest digital technology available
- Need to make improvements in the time taken to produce and ciruculate documentation
- Reduce paper backlog
Project Outcome
- Document turnarounds were reduced from 20 weeks to just five and a half
- 99% of documents are now reaching their turnaround times
- Standardised templates for a professional, consistent documentation