Moorfields looks to digital with BigHand

Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is to implement digital dictation. It has just signed a contract with BigHand to enable 250 users to switch from analogue tapes to digital working.

Project manager Loretta Kostecka told eHealth Insider the new system would make work processes a lot easier.

“It’s going to be saving a lot of time, money and be more efficient in the future. [Staff] will all get their letters and referrals done a lot quicker, and that’s good for the patients too.”

Assistant general manager capacity, access and theatres SDU, Antoinette Flynn, added: “We decided to implement digital dictation this year as a means to help further enhance the efficiency which the trust operates.

“We had to question if our current analogue tape system could deliver our trust requirements in the long term.

"Although the project is still in its very early stages, we hope BigHand will be able to work with us in developing a much more seamless and streamlined way of working for our clinicians and secretaries.”

The use of analogue tapes will be phased out as different stages of the digital dictation project go-live. The first deployment, involving medical retina consultants and administration staff, will go live on 25 July.

That will be followed by a full roll-out, which will take until the end of the year. Kostecka said the trust wanted to get the system fully up and running before it started to consider integrating the system with its electronic patient record.

She said staff have been enthusiastic about the new implementation but consultants are particularly keen to use it with mobile devices.

The trust is training key administration staff will to become ‘super-users’. Other staff who encounter and problems with the system will be able to contact the super-users for help, before they need to contact the IT helpdesk.

While the contract allows for only 250 users, Kostecka said that was above the trusts expected user count.

“I am sure there will be some people that will want to use it after they’ve seen it, but at the moment we’ve got in the region of 100 people that will be able to use it at the end of the final phase.”

BigHand said the contract is worth just over £50,000 for year one, with continued annual maintenance and support after that. Moorfields is the fifth trust in London to implement BigHand’s software.