Southernhay House Surgery

“The idea of a cloud-based solution was very attractive, and Lexacom Connect has already made a considerable difference to our team and our patients”.

Cindy Flatt, Practice Manager

Winning combination of Lexacom Echo and Lexacom Connect frees up 20 hours per week at Exeter practice

Southernhay House Surgery in Exeter has dramatically reduced time spent dictating and transcribing referrals thanks to a winning combination of cloud-based Lexacom Connect digital dictation and medical speech recognition software, Lexacom Echo.

Southernhay House Surgery is an 8100-patient practice operating from two sites. In 2016, a staffing shortage prompted the practice to review its reception and administrative functions. This resulted in the creation of a new role of ‘administrator’ covering both typing and reception roles across the two sites. Although the practice was using digital dictation, its usefulness was limited due to the lack of ability to share workload effectively across sites. As a forward-thinking team, Southernhay wanted a solution that would not only support multi-site working but could also be expanded to take in federated working with other practices in the future.

Lexacom was able to offer exactly what the practice needed, and more. Lexacom Connect is an advanced, cloud-based digital dictation system. The software integrates fully with Southernhay’s clinical system, SystmOne, and allows the practice’s seven GPs and administrators to work seamlessly, regardless of location.

“The idea of a cloud-based solution was very attractive, and Lexacom Connect has already made a considerable difference to our team and our patients. Only last week a GP consulting at our branch site dictated a referral in an evening appointment and the member of staff at the reception desk had typed it ready for checking and sending before the next patient had finished their appointment,” Cindy Flat.

In a further step to improve efficiency, Southernhay purchased Lexacom’s speech recognition software, Lexacom Echo. Cindy Flatt continued: “We had a demo of Lexacom Echo and could immediately see it was very user friendly. Because it was new to GPs and the administration team, everyone learnt the new system together.” Lexacom Echo is now being used by six clinicians in the practice, with a consistently high level of accuracy since October 2016.

The practice believes Lexacom’s software has been instrumental in improving their efficiency and freeing up staff time:

“It is rare that a referral isn’t typed, checked and sent within 24 hours.” Cindy added. “Introducing the combined administrator role alongside Lexacom Echo has freed up at least 20 hours a week. We love Lexacom Echo and would highly recommend it to others.” she concluded.

Southernhay’s next step is to extend the use of Lexacom Connect to share secretarial resources with other practices to support federated working and reduce the impact of staff shortages.