Withybush Hospital Haverfordwest

Withybush Hospital is situated in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, South-West Wales. Covering the disciplines of ultrasound, CT and nuclear medicine, the Withybush Hospital Radiology Department employs 5 consultant radiologists, 5 sonographers and a number of locum consultants and sees upwards of 70,000 patients each year.

The Challenge - Find a reliable system

An early adopter of digital dictation and transcription technology, by early 2004, Withybush Radiology Department was starting to find the equipment less reliable and prone to breakdown with two users even having returned to using analogue machines! Withybush therefore decided to start the search for newer, more reliable and better spec systems.

The Solution – WinScribe

Peter Davies is the Radiology Manager and was the person responsible for looking at the latest digital dictation solutions available. Mr. Davies’ first step was to talk to colleagues at the adjoining Ceridigion Primary Care Trust, who had recently moved over to a digital dictation system from Philips Dictation Systems partner reseller, Winscribe.

Following very positive recommendations from Ceridigion NHST, Consultant Radiologist Dr Karen Bradshaw along with Sue Cobb, P.A. and manager of the previous dictation system, visited the trust for an on-site demonstration. Both were immediately impressed. Withybush Hospital then went to tender for the digital dictation equipment and subsequently invited three suppliers, including WinScribe/Philips to pitch for the contact. Following presentations from each would-be supplier and a comprehensive technology and financial appraisal, Withybush chose WinScribe as the preferred provider, in part, due to the superior reliability and functionality of the WinScribe/Philips systems.

Following a more in-depth demonstration by WinScribe’s Ken Nolan, Withybush began trialing the PC-based Philips SpeechMike products along with stand-alone barcode modules. However, it soon became apparent that the consultants needed the flexibility of mobile devices in order to work across the various departments so the decision was taken to move to the Philips Digital Pocket Memo 9400i as the dictation input device to the Winscribe solution. Along with the 9400i, Withybush also purchased Philips 9284 barcode scanner modules, which can be attached to the 9400i. This provides the Withybush consultants with an all-in-one dictation / barcode scanning device.

Mr. Davies explains the advantages: “We’re extremely happy with the 9400i, especially with the integrated barcode scanner. The product has been a real boon for us, vastly increasing the efficiency of the department.” The Withybush consultants can now move around the various departments, quickly swipe a patient barcode and record their notes, safe in the knowledge that the dictation will be correctly linked with the patient. Mr. Davies adds: “The system is much more reliable than the previous system we were using. Even if our network fails, consultants can continue dictating reports offline and download them later. Other products that we looked at during the tender process wouldn’t allow this and for a busy department such as ours, this was a major consideration in our final decision.”

The Result - workload control

Mr. Davies was very impressed with WinScribe’s handling of the project from start to finish, finding them very knowledgeable and approachable. “The installation and training was very well handled; the Winscribe trainers spent time with each individual user.”

“Having said that, the system is very user-friendly and most users were quickly confident in using the new system”. Mr. Davies adds “At any one time, we also have a number of locum specialists working in the department who need to be able to pick up the dictation system and become comfortable with it very quickly. The Winscribe / Philips system is great in this respect – it is very intuitive and most newcomers are very happy with it.” Mr. Davies is also pleased with the level of support received from Winscribe since installation. Although the on-site IT specialists can manage much of the day to day running of the system, knowing that full back up support is available from Winscribe is important to Withybush.

Sue Cobb who is responsible for the day to day administration of the dictation system, sums up the views of many of the users: “I love the handhelds; they’re reliable, user-friendly and greatly improve the efficiency of the department. They make things easier for both secretaries and consultants. Everybody seems thoroughly pleased with the new system. We’ve also managed to eliminate one or two process bottlenecks that we previously had, with secretaries now receiving recordings more regularly, helping to balance their workload more evenly.”

Summary

Mr. Davies concludes: “we’re thoroughly pleased with the Winscribe / Philips system. The Digital Pocket Memos with barcodes are excellent. The whole system really has made us more efficient and we’re able to serve our patients even better than before. I would certainly have no hesitation in recommending the system to other would-be users.”

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