Lord Patrick Carter of Coles, who was charged by the Government in 2016 with helping to improve efficiency in the NHS, has commended Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust’s implementation of a digital appointment outcomes project designed to replace paper outcome forms and improve clinic efficiency.
He visited Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust in October to view the implementation of eOutcomes from digital patient flow specialists, Intouch with Health. The Trust launched the digital outcome form solution in July 2015. It enables clinicians to record the outcome of a patient appointment – including referral to treatment and procedure codes – using a digital form on their computer, eliminating the use of paper forms and improving both the efficiency and accuracy of information fed back to the Trust’s patient administration system.
Mat Swabey, Senior Project Support Manager, and Samantha Sheridan, Head of Patient Access at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust talked Lord Carter through the implementation of the solution, describing the improvements and cost savings made by the Trust since its launch.
Mat Swabey commented: “A primary objective of this project was to introduce a more efficient and accurate recording procedure and remove the need for paper based outcome forms. In my view, the introduction of the solution has been a complete success. It has greatly improved the compliance of doctors completing outcome forms which has resulted in better capture of outpatient procedures and a dramatic increase in Trust income.”
