Overview

It’s pouring digital!!
As the future of dictation systems is changing rapidly, the days of costly, inefficient and unreliable tape based systems are drawing to an end. With the advent of ultra modern and smart digital recording and advanced workflow/transmission options available, the days of analogue cassettes has become a thing of the past. The future definitely belongs to the ‘Digitalised’ Professionals.

TRADITIONAL APPROACH

NHS Trusts have traditionally used analogue dictation systems with audio tapes to record patient episodes and other clinical correspondence. Those audio tapes then needed to be physically transferred to the medical secretaries, which could take a few hours to a day, and who would then play the tape and manually transcribe the documents.

This not only induced significant time delays in report generation process, in most cases it was found that the quality of those recordings was poor due to repeated usage and re-recordings. Moreover, the tapes may be lost easily during the transfer, causing loss of important and sensitive patient identifiable information with additional costs incurred for replacements. Analogue dictation systems make the efficient management of workload amongst a team of secretaries extremely difficult, especially when the secretaries are spread amongst multiple sites. On top of all this, the impracticality of locating a specific document or line(s) in a 4 hours long analogue tape makes analogue dictation system extremely inefficient, slow, time consuming and expensive.

Some Facts about Analogue Dictation Systems

1. Over 70% of the GP practices, Trust Hospitals and other NHS organisations have misplaced and/or damaged analog cassette tapes containing important or sensitive patient information.
   
2. Over 90% of the GP practices, Trust Hospitals and other NHS organisations were unable to complete the work within the desired timeframe, thus failing to meet the current targets set by DoH
   
3. Significant delays being caused due to employees not being able to share work between departments or different sites.
   
4. Over 35% of revenue lost due to temporary staff being used due work overload or to cover for permanent staff on holiday or sick leave.
   

The Changing face of Healthcare Industry

With new challenges on the horizon such as the 18-week target for patient pathways including documentation turnaround, practice-based commissioning and GP Out-of-Hours services, there is immense pressure on healthcare organisations and service level managers to meet these tight targets. With diminishing budgets, tighter timelines and ever increasing expectations, all NHS organisations are under immense pressure to cut costs to save money right across the board and find new ways to ensure maximum value is achieved from the investment with significantly higher ROI and quick TAT.

The Solution

Digital dictation offers an entirely electronic platform for recording, distribution, storage, management and transcribing of patient episodes and clinical correspondence, thereby providing the perfect solution to the problem that has dogged NHS for decades.

Our leading-edge Digital Dictation and Workflow Management solution is a direct result of logical evolution from popular traditional, expensive and high maintenance analogue dictation systems. Our solution has been designed for all healthcare professionals, including but not limited to Clinicians, Medical Secretaries and healthcare managers to specifically address the above issues. Our solution has been designed and developed with the latest, cutting-edge digital technologies that enables dictations to be managed intelligently and automatically send them to the secretaries or outsourced partners, irrespective of their geographical location. Compounded with our expertise in project management, consultancy, integration, Implementation, training and support, we offer a full package .

Our solution offers a revolutionary new way of creating, accessing, managing, processing, distributing and transcribing medical dictations, thereby rapidly increasing the document creation Turn-Around-Time. Our digital dictation solution provides significant Return-On-Investment (ROI) for the trust in a very short timespan, helping our clients to overcome those financial pressures while still delivering the same high standard of patient care. We will work with you to prepare a business case for your organisation that would include the projected savings for the trust, hence reflecting the ROI

Our Solution

EASE YOUR LIFE…..DIGITISE!!

Switching over from Analogue to Digital has never been so easy. As your partner in transformation, we will guide you every step of the way to make this transition a smooth and pleasurable experience.

We aim to provide an end-to-end digital dictation and workflow management solution that takes care of all aspects of clinical correspondence creation, right from dictations’ creation phase to the distribution of the final documents created during this process. Our solution endeavours to fulfil all of our client's expectations and requirements from an industry leading solution. We are always looking to push the boundaries by researching into the latest technologies to design and implement the 'right solution' for our clients. MediTech Solutions possesses state-of-art development facilities with the 'Next-Generation' solutions designed by implementing the latest cutting edge technologies. And combined these with our highly skilled and trained workforce, we fully meet the unique requirements of our clients in business process outsourcing.

Our leading-edge Digital Dictation and Workflow Management solution is a direct result of logical evolution from popular traditional, expensive and high maintenance analogue dictation systems. Our solution has been designed for the healthcare professionals, including but not limited to Clinicians, Medical Secretaries and healthcare managers to specifically address the issues that have dogged the NHS by :

1. Streamlining the document creation process
   
2. Delivering massive cost savings
   
3. Improving productivity
   
4. Dramatically increasing inter-departmental and staff operational efficiencies
   
5. Significantly reducing the Document creation Turn-Around-Time

Our solution has been designed and developed with the latest, cutting-edge digital technologies that enables dictations to be managed intelligently and automatically send them to the secretaries or outsourced partners, irrespective of their geographical location. Compounded with our expertise in project management, consultancy, integration, Implementation, training and support, we offer a full package .

Our solution offers a revolutionary new way of creating, accessing, managing, processing, distributing and transcribing medical dictations, thereby rapidly increasing the document creation Turn-Around-Time. Our digital dictation solution provides significant Return-On-Investment (ROI) for the trust as it can be seamless integrated into any clinical or PAS system.

Technical Architecture

Our digital dictation solution is a multi-tier, client-server windows based application that has been designed by using the latest, state-of-art technologies to cater to the current and future demands of the healthcare industry. We offer a comprehensive range of fully integrated digital dictation solutions, which slot perfectly into most existing IT-systems; offering productivity enhancements, increased return on investment and operational cost reductions.

Our solution has been developed by using the famous Microsoft platform with an Enterprise level Relational Database Management System such as SQL Server 2003 and onwards. This combination ensures there are no bottle-necks in the system, user queries are optimised for enhanced data efficiency with consistent and optimal performance delivered through the system at all times.

Application Server

This is the main power house of our application and is what drives the application. Under the hood, it consists of:

1. Microsoft Windows Server 2003/2005/2008
   
2. Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0
   
3. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 onwards
   
4. Workflow Management server module
   
5. Speech Recognition module and SDK (Optional)
   

Client Machine

1. Windows XP (SP2) / Windows 7
   
2. Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0
   
3. Workflow Management client module
   
4. Dictatphone devise Sync application such as Olympus DSS Professional or equivalent

Feature-Rich Solution
We aim to provide an end-to-end Digital Dictation solution that is basically designed around the following core principles:

• Ease of use for the end user
  
• Effective worksharing
  
• Security
  
• Stability and reliability
  
• Scalability
  
• Flexibility & Customisation
  
• Inter Compatibility

With End User’s Perspective

With our solution, we have manage to perfect the critical balance between technology and end users experience for ease of use through intuitive yet self explanatory user interfaces. And this is because the application has been developed by keeping the end-users in mind. We are well aware that most of our user-base (clinicians and medical secretaries) will be from a non technical background, having very limited computer/technical knowledge. We have, therefore, taken pain-stacking effort to take the technical jargon out of the system’s usage, enabling users to use the system effectively and efficiently within no time.

Effective Worksharing

Encourages Information Sharing: Our system promotes effective teamworking amongst medical secretaries and worksharing amongst different sites instantly and securely.

Security

The multi-tier architecture of our application enables the data layer containing sensitive information to be separate and hence inaccessible from the front-end presentation layer. This makes our solution highly secure and provides that much needed peace of mind to our clients that the data is safe and secure against malicious attacks.

Also all files within our system, whether audio (dictations) or finished reports, are encrypted and password protected for added security.

Stability and Reliability

The system includes auto restoration with ability to recover and reconnect session between the client and the server. We have also implemented the concept of persistence in our Relational Database to ensure no information is lost upon unexpected interruption in a user session and that the system is available at all times with consistent performance and results.

Scalability

Our solution has been designed to adapt and grow inline with our client’s business, hence can work successfully with a single user to several thousand users. A single install for the client software of our application ensures simple and easy installation process for a additional users and sites.
Our solution has successfully passed volumetric testing to ensure there are no bottle necks within the application.

Flexibility and Customisation

When it comes to Digital Dictation – Customization is the key – and this is where we make the difference.

We are more than aware that the needs of every customer are unique and different. Hence, we don’t believe in ‘one set-up for all’!!

We are particularly proud of the flexibility and level of customisation offered by our solution. This has been made possible because at the core of our solution, is present an intelligent Workflow process, which automatically manages the flow of dictations electronically across LANs, WANs or the Internet, depending upon the workpool settings for any user. The flow of files can be easily customised to meet individual user’s requirement by simple configuration of our Workflow Manager on the basis of users’ profile, speciality, department or any other bespoke criteria.

Our customised solution is designed to fit right in with our client’s operational practice and network infrastructure with the aim to automate and streamline the most complicated of the documentation workflows, right from the creation of dictations through to the automated distribution of final reports in the most secure, controlled and cost-effective way..

Compatibility

Considering that our clients could well be using one of many network infrastructures, we have gone that extra mile to ensure that our Dictation solutions support most of the leading networks globally – be it Windows 2008, XP, Vista or the more contemporary Windows 7.

Concurrently we support hardware from all leading manufacturers of Digital Hardware. This ensures the compatibility of our client’s Operating System and Hardware with our Digital Solution Software – so our clients can enjoy the functional benefits with minimal initial investment upfront. This is not without reason considering that our digital Software is compatible with all leading software solutions

So whatever is the OS or IT hardware that you use – we are fully compatible!! All that is needed to do is to load the application up and you are ready to go

Workflow Management

Intelligently Managed Workflow

We are particularly proud of the flexibility and level of customisation offered by our solution. This has been made possible because at the core of our solution, is present an intelligent Workflow process, which automatically manages the flow of dictations electronically across LANs, WANs or the Internet, depending upon the workpool settings for any user. Our collaborative workflow supports restructuring in resources and the push to increase productivity. We have built our Enterprise Edition to be easy-to-use, intuitive to administer and flexible for customising for any type and size of organisation.

The flow of files can be easily customised to meet individual user’s requirement by simple configuration of our Workflow Manager on the basis of users’ profile, speciality, department or any other bespoke criteria.

Our unique and intelligent workflow management feature enables to:

1. Automatic assignment of the audio files coming from various clinicians to the medical secretaries in accordance to the pre-defined rules.
   
2. Settings configuration to determine which secretary is to receive dictations from a particular clinician.
   
3. It also helps determine the complete life cycle (number of levels/tiers) for the document creation process

Benefits

With our solution, there is something for everybody..Literally!!

Clinicians:

1. Portability: Our solution is fully portable, enabling users to work ‘on-the-fly’ from anywhere and anytime. With our portable handheld recorders, clinicians can record dictations on the go from the ward, next to the patient-side or during rounds, while all the vital clinical information in still fresh in their minds and without needing to be back on their desk.
2. Prioritise Urgent Dictations: The clinicians are able to prioritise urgent/critical dictations for quicker processing and faster Turn-Around-Time, without worrying about missing targets due to delay or how and where to send urgent dictations.
3. Immediate Turn Around: All transcribed/completed dictations can be received by the clinicians for their attention (approval/Rejection) immediately.
4. Electronic Approvals & Rejections: The clinicians are able to approve the final transcribed reports with their e-signatures or reject the report for immediate attention of the secretary.
5. Real-Time Status Check: The clinician can easily check the status of his dictations in real time via our clearly distinctive user interfaces.

Medical Secretaries:

1. Immediate Receipt of new Dictations: Any new dictation(s) uploaded by the clinicians are received immediately by the secretary with no delays at all. Hence, they no longer have to hunt or wait around for tapes.
2. Better Informed: Medical secretaries can view all the new dictations which have been allocated to them for processing, all in one place rather than browsing all historical dictations. This, therefore, makes secretaries better informed regarding their work volumes.
3. Urgent Dictations Notifications: The medical secretaries are aware which dictations are of higher priority and need urgent attention.
4. Immediate Turn Around: All transcribed/completed dictations can be transferred back to the clinicians for their attention (approval/Rejection) immediately.
   

Healthcare Administrators / Managers

1. Full Visibility of WorkLoad: Admin/Managers have the ability to be able to see dictations from all the clinicians. Hence they are fully aware of the actual workload for the secretaries at all times and are able to plan accordingly.
2. Real-Time Status Check: The managers can easily check the status of dictations in real time via our clearly distinctive user interfaces and extensive display setting options. and hence are able to easily identify any bottlenecks in the process.
3. Effective Resource Management: Admin staff/managers are able to clearly see the workload of each secretary and if needed, can manually transfer/reallocate dictations from a ‘more busy’ secretary to a ‘less busy’ secretary through dynamic routing capabilities. This enables the managers to easily and accurately manage the workload between available resources, effectively and efficiently.
4. Effective Information Sharing: With our solution, administrators are easily able to distribute workload to the secretarial resource pools from different sites.
5. Statistical Management Reporting Toolkit: Our system can generate a comprehensive suite of production and work volume reports on a Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Ad-Hoc basis for individual user (clinical or medical secretary) or department basis. This can enable the management to track targets, performance and secretarial workload in real-time. We can also create customisable reports to meet any special or specific requirement from the trust.

Healthcare Trusts

1. Significant Return on Investment for the Trust: Under the current financial conditions of the healthcare industry, where budgets are further diminishing, our solutions can offer trusts significant Returns on Investment in a very short span of time by reducing operational costs.
2. Meeting the Targets: Our solution offers measureable quicker Turn-Around-Time for documents creation, processing and distribution by modernisation and streamlining operations.
3. Huge cost savings on perishable equipment: With our solution, there is no need to buy or replace lost, stolen, damaged or worn-out analogue tape machines and cassettes after every few months. Also, the trust can save a small fortune in secure transportation of audio cassettes as our solution transfers files electronically instantly and securely.
4. Reduce Temporary Staff: As the managers have a better picture of the current and/or expected work volumes, they can plan more efficiently for any increase in the work volumes or shortage in secretarial staff due to sickness or annual leave.
5. Encourages Information Sharing: Our system promotes effective teamworking amongst medical secretaries and worksharing amongst different sites instantly and securely.