Lincolnshire rolls out digital pens

United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust has successfully piloted a fully integrated digital pen system.

The trust uses Streets Heaver's Clinical Manager therapy management system, and approached the company last year to see if it could find a way to improve the speed and efficiency with which data was entered into it.

The two organisations decided to trial digital pens with four clinical teams in the occupational therapy and physiotherapy services at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston.

The digital pens capture data into the relevant fields within Clinical Manager, as well as producing a pdf of the information.

The pilot showed that use of the pens could save clinicians 167 hours per month and administrative staff 83.5 hours per month.

The trust is now increasing the scope of the system and intends to roll it out to outpatients and other specialties across all of its hospitals - Pilgrim, Grantham and District, and Lincoln, as well as three community hospitals.

Associate director of therapy services, Anita Cooper, said it was hoped the pens would eventually change the role of the administrative team.

“Very little training is required and the therapists have found it very easy to pick up. Users simply write on the digitised forms, while retaining the written copy, and then dock the pen at their convenience during the day.”

The data is automatically converted into digital text and then uploaded to Clinical Manager. Data validation checks and corrections are carried out prior to transmission to avoid error.