As a public sector organisation, the NHS is constantly under pressure to maximise output while keeping costs low. However, their reliance on legacy systems only exacerbates everyday challenges.
For the NHS to navigate through this extremely demanding environment, a solution that can address multiple issues at once is nothing short of essential.
Servicing more than one million people every day, the NHS is critical to the UK – and despite ever-expanding demand, record high inflation, and progressively tighter budgets, they still manage to consistently deliver high-quality care across the nation.
However, the NHS has one major weakness: namely, a heavy reliance on legacy technology. Not only does this significantly limit staff’s ability to be efficient, but these systems are only becoming more expensive to maintain, as well as presenting an enormous risk for patient data – with breaches originating from both internal and external sources.
Of course, many NHS branches are creating a wealth of cost efficiencies by moving away from single-function legacy systems, and toward Managed Print Services. With print fleets rationalised down to fewer multi-functional devices – and the costs for maintenance, ongoing support, and consumable resupply covered in regular payment instalments - NHS Trusts such as Salisbury, Royal Surrey County, Kingston, and Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells have been able to regain control of their IT budgets, and funnel much-needed funds into other areas.
But creating operational efficiencies is just the beginning. Solving challenges to do with data accuracy and cyber security is the next item on the docket – and as our recent eBook lays out, it all starts by digitising patient data.
It should come as no surprise that digital data has obvious advantages over paper records – such as being easier to back up, send, and locate, facilitating greater interoperability. Storage is also a huge benefit, since repurposing office space previously dedicated to record-keeping allows NHS Trusts to open the door to many other efficiencies, depending on their requirements.
However, the true extent of the good that digitising data can do for the NHS is a much larger part of the iceberg. For example:
When it comes to accuracy, manual data entry can’t hold a candle to an automatic process. With the help of Digital Capture software, specific data in scanned documents is isolated, digitised, and routed to your existing databases – eliminating the chances of human error, and ensuring that your records are completely accurate.
Furthermore, with data entry tasks being handled automatically, your teams are able to largely remove it from their day-to-day workload. This means employees are wasting less salaried hours on an inefficient, potentially error-generating task, and more time doing what they do best – delivering effective, compassionate, patient-focused care.
As mentioned previously, interoperability between systems is much easier to accomplish when digital data is easy to store and locate – since, provided your data is properly organised in an Information Management system, crucial records can be accessed by staff in a matter of seconds. Having this information at their fingertips enables your people to provide a responsive and dynamic service to patients, even if they happen to be working offsite.
Prescribing appropriate and effective care is further enabled when staff are all working from the same, accurate records – which are also easier to achieve with Information Management, since any given digital document can be automatically and universally updated in real-time.
While physical storage setups are often thwarted by negligence, physical infiltration methods, and accidental damage, digital data can easily be backed up safely in Cloud-based Information Management systems. In fact, these days, it’s actually riskier to not have a digital filing system of this kind in place, since Cloud providers are beholden to continually bolster their security measures for the purposes of compliance.
Also, Information Management systems have another clear edge on physical storage options: access control. While internal breaches are just as much of a problem for the NHS as external ones, this problem is minimised when working with digital filing systems – since trusted administrators can set security measures that stop any unauthorised colleagues from accessing specific files, whether accidentally or otherwise.
The more effective the NHS is seen to be, the stronger its reputation as an institution will become. This is why pursuing extensive digitisation strategies is so crucial – and gaining awareness of what is possible with digital records is the best possible first step.
For a deeper dive into the challenges faced by the NHS, and the solutions that digitisation can provide, download our eBook – or contact us by using the form below.
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