Exploring patient record storage at a London eye hospital and how West Hertfordshire manages 350k medical records – HTN Health Tech News

For HTN’s latest feature series, we focus in on digital clinical and administrative systems, sharing practical use cases and examples supporting productivity.

Here, we explore Restore Information Management’s Auto-Ordering System, utilised by NHS organisations to support automation when ordering and managing patient records, files and notes. We share examples of the system in use, as well as how it supports increased standardisation and centrally controlled processes.

Andrew Robertshaw, implementation manager at Restore Information Management, highlighted that “the system takes the need away for hospitals to have to manually request records from us”. He added: “We make sure we deliver the right record, at the right time, to the right place for patient appointments. Not only that, but if someone is placing an order manually, they may only consider their area or their clinic, and not consider an appointment happening beforehand. Our system can, however, handle all of that – it’s about making sure that the record is there when the patient’s being seen.”

Another major benefit is the space saved within the hospital, Andrew went on, as “space within a hospital is at a premium, and we’re all struggling with that”. Having large areas dedicated to records “isn’t always a good use” of the space that is available, he said, “so we can take those records in and manage them on the hospital’s behalf”. This frees up space to be redeveloped or repurposed to support patient care, Andrew told us, “sometimes that might be for outpatient wards, or even commercial spaces like a coffee lounge”.

Streamlining patient record storage in London eye hospital

A specialist London eye hospitals faced the challenge of records and “temporary notes” stored in over 62,000 boxes across multiple sites. The NHS eye hospital was in need of a solution that could “consolidate all their records”. They required safer storage in order to reduce risks, as well as a new process that would allow them to locate records “quickly and easily” while also saving money on resources.

The transition to Restore Information Management’s Auto-Ordering System meant that a reported 1 million notes and records were transferred, with each document being catalogued and indexed with a unique barcode of availability “within 24 hours”, ensuring none of the records were “out of action” for an extended period. This led to a more “standardised approach” to operating procedures, allowing for records to be prioritised by appointment and “delivered on time for all patient appointments”.

Restore Information Management also put measures in place for cancelled appointments, making sure that “short-notice changes” were reflected in the system, reportedly reducing the trust’s spend. Other notable results included: improved accessibility of files, which has led to a reduction in temporary notes; refocusing of staff efforts towards patient care; improved compliance; and a 100% pick rate with 2,400 retrievals a day.

View this case study in more detail.

Transforming the management of 350k medical records in West Hertfordshire 

With around 350,000 medical records held within 28,000 boxes across two different sites, West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust found themselves facing multiple challenges, including insufficient storage, inefficient location of files and “high volumes of unstructured data”.

As such, the trust turned to Restore Information Management and has since been working with them for over 10 years now. An agreement was made that “managing and storing the records off-site was a quick and cost-effective way to create the required clinical space”, while also freeing up staff to place their efforts elsewhere, such as supporting the implementation of a new EPR system.

A 12-week project with Restore Information Management ensured all records were transferred successfully for availability within 24 hours, giving staff the ability to order files for next-day delivery. This led to monthly retrieval requests reaching “22,700 across the trust’s three hospital sites” with Restore Informatin Management responding to this demand through a “dedicated transport solution” for the trust. A “unique software interface” was also developed to allow for better flexibility when meeting the trust’s ordering needs.

View this case study in more detail.

Benefits of Restore Information’s auto-ordering solution

Andrew shared with us how Restore Information Management’s customers have utilised the time saved, including “looking at other aspects of health records and their digital journey”. Hospitals are “always looking at how they can reduce the amount of paper in their organisation”, he said, “and this works really well for that, because it supports their change in process needed to stop using paper”.

“The process lends itself to increased standardisation and centrally controlled processes. Whereas if you have maybe 20 people working in a medical records department all requesting notes manually, it’s very difficult to control when they request notes, how they request notes, and who they request notes for”. Where the system helps overcome this, he went on, “is that it takes away from that individual person having to make those decisions – that’s all controlled centrally by a management team at the hospital”.

That “massively standardises the delivery of records”, Andrew told us, “ultimately reducing costs to the organisation, and also making sure that the right patient is seen with the right notes, at the right time, which comes back to that patient care piece”.

The clinic prep of records “can also really help get them ready for scanning”, Andrew said, “because as part of the preparation process we have a really tight control on what is acceptable for a medical record, including condition, structure, and size. In a busy medical records department, time constraints might prevent that kind of control or oversight, but we can make sure the notes don’t get too thick, and then if they want to go down the scanning route it’s already organised with only the most relevant paperwork for scanning.”

When it comes to implementation, Andrew highlights the efficiency of the process, talking about recent development work focusing on making the process quick to roll-out. “This is our own software we’ve developed,” he said, “so whereas before we had to create a new system for every hospital, now, with our expertise of working with lots of different hospitals, we’ve come up with a standard message format that will actually work for all hospitals, and then a shared system on top of that, so adding a new customer into this now is really quite quick and easy”.

If you’re interested in learning more about Restore Information Management and their automatic record ordering, please click here.