Dietitians at Global Digital Exemplar Fast Follower, Royal Oldham Hospital will be going digital this week with their referrals and forms.
The project involves standardising and digitising of dietetic documentation to reduce manual recording of information and using paper based forms.
It will involve introducing document template forms into one structured dietetic clinical note which will be readily available to other disciplines and filed within the electronic patient record.
The dietetic team, based at The Royal Oldham Hospital currently receive on average, 180 adult referrals per month. Although these referrals arrive electronically, they are currently manually processed so the projects will significantly reduce the amount of manual transcribing by members of the team.
Nicola Bielby, Site Lead for Dietetics at The Royal Oldham Hospital, said “Sometimes, during and after a consultation with a patient, we may have to manually complete several different forms. These often involve entering information twice and searching for information. This can be very time consuming. We’re really looking forward to being able to complete this so much more quickly, enabling us to spend more time with our patients.”
Once discharged, dietetic notes will be pulled together electronically and forwarded to the relevant health and care provider. This will reduce the amount of time it takes to process paper work for these patients and streamline the dietetic pathway. It will also reduce the need to store dietetic paper records within the department.
Dr Georges Ng Man Kwong, Chief Clinical Information Officer, said “Digitising our clinical pathways will streamline patient care in a number of specialties and really make a difference to both staff and patients. This is one of a number of projects within the GDE Fast Follower programme, which will support the transformation of our clinical services across the Northern Care Alliance.”
