Over three quarters of practice teams spend over half their time doing patient documentation
Recent survey reveals a third of General Practices want better technology to help improve patient documentation

LONDON, UK. – November 4th 2016 – Three quarters of practice teams (76%) spend over half their time doing patient documentation according to new research commissioned by Nuance Communications.

The volume, the backlog, and the quality (completeness and accuracy) of patient and administrative documentation were all cited as key challenges by GP surgery practice managers with regard to the GP practice workload and management of patient records (87%, 43% and 46% respectively).

Many GP practices look to new technology to support them in this process, with a third of practice managers (33.3%) claiming that better technology would improve the paperwork workload in their practice.

However, the majority of GP practice managers (70%) stated that funding is a key challenge when implementing new technology, with the time and people resources also listed as significant hurdles (67% and 63% respectively). IT knowledge and experience was cited as a barrier by two in five of doctors (40%), while data security and privacy was a concern for just 22 per cent.

Further key figures include:

·         Just 10 per cent of GPs  use speech recognition technology to support the team with patient documentation / paperwork processes

·         Over 83 per cent of practices who use speech recognition technology reported a positive impact upon patient documentation / paperwork processes at their practice

·         90 per cent of practice managers and doctors say that the creation and processing of patient documentation is a burden to their practice

·         Half of GP practices (48.5%) report that over half their patient documentation is paper versus electronic

Simon Wallace, Chief Clinical Information Officer at Nuance Communications, said:

“Clinical documentation makes up an incredible amount of our health professionals’ workload, taking essential time away from direct patient care. As the NHS overhauls its archaic paper documentation system, it is essential that doctors are provided with solutions that not only digitise their reporting process, but also help them create reports in a more accurate and efficient way.

“Doctors are demanding better technology to help them meet the goal of a paperless NHS, so it’s important that health trusts look at the different solutions available, such as voice recognition technology, which will support doctors throughout this transition and provide real benefits to the patient.”

Dr. Ivan CamphorSenior, Partner at Heatherlands Medical Centre in Wirral.

“Despite the technological progress made with speech recognition, one question I still get asked a lot is: ‘Does speech recognition actually work?’ This question is usually quickly followed by others, like: ‘Is it accurate?’ ‘Does it really save you time?’ From personal experience, I can tell you that the answer to these three questions is an emphatic “yes.”

 

Methodology

The survey was conducted online during August and September 2016, in cooperation with a neutral third party media platform for GP practices and practice managers in the UK, and collected feedback from 67 GP surgeries.

Resources and Information

Nuance voice-driven clinical document solutions

Dragon Medical Practice Edition is designed specifically for GP surgeries and medical centres. It provides advanced professional medical speech recognition capabilities including a wide range of medical vocabularies and includes a wide range of medical vocabularies, making it quick and easy to update electronic patient records – freeing up more time to care for patients.

About Nuance Communications, Inc.

Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world.  Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications.  For more information, please visit: www.nuance.com or follow us on https://twitter.com/voice4health

Press contact:

EMEA
Vanessa Richter
Nuance Communications
Tel : + 32 475769507
vanessa.richter@nuance.com