Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trusthas
started a pilot of new office working practices to use IT to
improve efficiency.
Paul Curley, consultant surgeon and clinical director of
surgical services at Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, said, "We
have looked at new types of technology through the office pilot to
help us move to our new hospital development in 2009."
Digital dictation has been one of the key projects, based on
technology supplied by
Bighand. The trust wanted to
see how it could use digital recordings of consultants' notes
instead of the audio tapes that were previously used. Audio tapes
could get lost or damaged and needed to be physically sent between
the three sites of the trust.
With digital dictation, Curley said the audio can be moved
electronically between sites, eliminating the need for consultants
to redictate due to lost or mangled tapes.
The trust is also amending its desktop printing strategy. When
the new site is developed, Curley said it would use mutli-function
printers instead of standard office laser printers, as these
devices include scanning, photocopy and faxes built-in.
Wireless-enables laptop PCs will use be used instead of desktop PCs
at the new site.