Leeds and York takes BigHand

Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is implementing a trust-wide digital dictation and workflow management system.

The mental health trust, which currently uses analogue tapes for dictation, has selected BigHand as preferred supplier to replace the trust’s outdated equipment.

It hopes digital dictation will address issues such as backlogs occurring due to infrequent delivery of tapes back to the hospital and the associated information governance risks.

BigHand will integrate the system with the trust’s patient administration system, Paris, and its own Clinic Builder to help pre-populate patient demographic information.

Leeds and York support service lead Susan Sheard said she hoped the new system would improve productivity, quality of patient care and quality of correspondence.

“It is anticipated that the support service team will be able to manage workflow more effectively using a digital dictation system and that it will support the move towards integrated electronic records, improving the accessibility of timely information for clinicians”.

The trust plans implementation of the system to start in April with go-live as soon as it’s ready.

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Nick Venters hoped it would reduce risks such as tapes going missing.

“It’s hoped that the new system will reduce delays in correspondence, which is a major concern to patients, clinicians and commissioners,” he said.

“Our aim was to seek a simple process that would be readily understood by clinical staff used to dictating with analogue tapes.”