The stress and strain healthcare professionals are under, even pre-dating the pandemic, is well understood. Pressures of waiting lists, recruitment and retention difficulties and budget constraints all contribute to the stresses and strains. An equally significant root cause is the time clinicians spend on paperwork and administration.
The documentation burden
Over the last decade or so, medical care has become increasingly complex, leading to a need for clinicians to make much more detailed notes.
As a result, documentation can account for a third of the working week for many clinicians according to a survey of NHS Trusts in England by Nuance in 2022*. That’s 25% higher than in 2015.
Clinical documentation is crucial, but it places a heavy burden on healthcare providers and prevents them from focusing on the most essential part of their job: interacting with patients. It is also contributing to the burnout many are experiencing.
AI-powered speech empowering healthcare providers
Modern technologies, such as AI–powered speech recognition, are being used to help relieve some of these pressures by enabling clinicians to work more efficiently.
Dragon Medical One (DMO), the AI-powered speech recognition solution from Microsoft Nuance, designed for the healthcare sector, uses conversational AI to accurately transform speech to text, feeding it directly into clinical systems. Compatible with all the leading Electronic Patient Record (EPR) systems, DMO can help improve the quality of documentation and support national standards such as those recommended by the PRSB.
Dr Simon Wallace, Chief Clinical Information Officer at Microsoft Nuance, explains: “Our AI-powered solutions help clinicians and care teams to streamline the documentation process, revolutionising the doctor-patient relationship and driving better clinical outcomes.”
The impact of conversational AI in healthcare
As a Microsoft Nuance Value Added Reseller, Voice Technologies helps NHS Trust and Boards to introduce DMO, with game-changing results.
NHS Lanarkshire’s Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) teams are a prime example of those who have benefitted.
Voice Technologies helped them replace a time-consuming, unsecure analog tape process with a cloud-based digital system that combines DMO with WinVoiceWeb, its document creation and distribution app designed with and for the NHS.
After the first year, the team reported that they had been able to free up 40% more time for patient care. Their therapists are now using DMO to turn reports around in half the time and manage their caseload on a daily basis, working both remotely and on site. The admin team has cut the time they spend on reports by up to 80%. Document turnaround time is down by an average of 55%.
All of these gains have freed up resources to carry out essential tasks such as processing referrals and answering telephone calls more efficiently, speeding up the response time to patients and carers.
Collette McCallum, SLT Site Co-ordinator at University Hospital Wishaw said: “[DMO and WinVoiceWeb] have changed my working life completely and have significantly improved the SLT service in NHS Lanarkshire for patients and staff.”
A crucial aspect of embracing this new technology has been that by revolutionising the way the SLT service in NHS Lanarkshire works, it has, in turn, improved staff morale.
Voice Technologies brings you a Masterclass ‘ The AI Revolution in Healthcare: How Conversational AI Can Empower Healthcare Providers’ presented by Dr Simon Wallace, Chief Clinical Information Officer at Nuance, a Microsoft company, at Health and Care Transformation 2024 in Glasgow, UK.