Lexacom Scribe: seamless integration at a practice in south-west England
“For me, it is how well integrated Lexacom Scribe is with Lexacom Digital Dictation. I was aware of it but didn’t realise it was as integrated and seamless as it is. If I had realised, I would have tried Lexacom Scribe a lot sooner.”
– Practice manager in south-west England
Lexacom Scribe was a great help when staffing fell.
A GP Practice in Southwest England has seen a range of changes in the last few years. Physically, the practice has expanded with a recently completed extension that added a range of new consulting rooms and facilities. This was actioned whilst the practice maintained service to its population of over 15,000, approximately three hundred of whom visit the practice every day.
Other changes have included staff departures, both as the natural cycle of change and through the impact of the pandemic. One area of the practice that this affected was the secretarial team. With several of the team leaving and limited options for replacing them with staff trained in medical transcription, the centre’s practice manager looked for solutions and settled on Lexacom Scribe, Lexacom’s transcription support service.
Lexacom Scribe seamlessly integrates with the existing workflow.
The GP Practice has been using Lexacom digital dictation since before 2018, to reduce the time its more than ten doctors take to write letters and advice pieces for their patients. With Lexacom Scribe, with its next business day turnaround, and UK-based NHS medically trained transcription staff, both the speed and quality of the output to patients has been maintained.
However, it was how seamless the integration between Lexacom digital dictation and Lexacom Scribe is, that has most impressed the practice manager. It is like having a dedicated team ‘in the next room’, providing a service as fast and as good quality as if they were ‘in the room’.
Everything helps, given the pressures on the NHS.
The GP Practice’s move to use Lexacom Scribe is a small part of a larger challenge that the Practice is facing. Like primary care practices and secondary care operations up and down the UK, the Centre is faced with unprecedented demands for its resources.
With a full count of over twenty-five staff (full and part-time, clinical, reception, and administration) to maintain, the practice knows only too well about the huge number of GP vacancies in the NHS, the nearly 20% fall in applications for nursing staff, and the struggle to recruit trained receptionists and administrators.
Add in the compounding effect of the over two thousand extra patients that most GP practices now must provide for, when compared to just a few years ago, and the increasing age profile of the average patient, and this practice can be seen as a microcosm of the pressures on the NHS.
This was spelled out by the Practice Manager in an open letter published in the local press, where they pointed out that with falling GP numbers, and rising patient numbers, the total number of patients per GP has risen by nearly twenty percent. This in turn has impacted the GP’s working hours, administration responsibilities, and in many cases, management responsibilities for their practices, which have increased footfall, wear and tear, and other demands.
The Practice has moved to make use of non-face-to-face options and pushed digital capabilities via its website. This helps with an average of 200 patients a day. Moving to use Lexacom Scribe, is another element of this move to working in new ways to meet these increased demands.
About Lexacom Scribe dictation transcription service.
Lexacom Scribe is Lexacom’s dictation transcription service, offering secure, accurate transcriptions, with next-business-day returns.
It can be used as an on-demand, fully flexible, use-it-as-you-need-it service, for those times when the practice team needs a spare pair of hands.
Lexacom Scribe’s integration with Lexacom’s digital dictation system means Lexacom Scribe can be set up and running in just one day. Giving near-instant time savings to all busy practice management teams.
Note: this case study has had the name of the GP Practice and Lexacom Scribe customer removed for approval requirements.
