AI‑powered solution is key to quality patient notes
Dragon Medical One improves accuracy and flexibility in recording a patient's story for The Practice Prospect House.
Telling the patient story
According to Dr Ahmed Moukli, secure, cloud‑based speech recognition provides a rich, detailed narrative that goes straight into the EPR, ensuring quality, accuracy, as well as peace of mind that the patient story is being told correctly. Read the story of his experience with Dragon Medical One.
Challenge
A busy GP practice with a list of more than 3,500 patients needed a flexible, accurate and reliable technical solution to help streamline workflows, ensuring quality note taking and production of documents that could fully tell the patient story and be easily shared among those involved in their care.
Solution
Engaged with fully cloud‑based speech recognition platform that can be used across multiple clients from desktop to laptop to smartphone, allowing notes to be captured instantly, ensuring clinical documentation such as patient letters can be quickly shared to ensure the continuum of care.
Results
- Accuracy and flexibility in recording a patient’s story
- Continuity of care improved with the ability to share clinical letters at the right time
Background
Fully understanding a patient’s story is critical to providing the best care, treatment and experience and ultimately improving outcomes. For busy GP practices, where the patient pathway often begins, it is crucial that clinicians can spend enough time to understand their health and care needs, but also find the time to accurately document the visit to help with any future care.
With GPs often carrying out more than 30 consultations a day, writing up notes can take a considerable amount of time, eating into the time they can spend with patients and also risks information being recorded inaccurately or with insufficient detail.
Secure, cloud‑based speech recognition provides a rich, detailed narrative that goes straight into the EPR, ensuring quality, accuracy, as well as peace of mind that the patient story is being told correctly.
Accuracy and flexibility are crucial for recording the patient story
Dr Ahmad Moukli has been qualified for 27 years, with 12 years experience as a GP, and has long recognised the benefits of using speech technology to accurately record the patient story and avoid becoming overwhelmed with paperwork.
Moving from an on‑premise to a cloud‑based speech recognition solution, that can be accessed from any device whether at home or work, has introduced the flexibility and accuracy needed for him to ensure detailed patient notes. These notes can be transcribed in real time and made available straight away for anyone else involved in their care, from GP colleagues to secondary care clinicians.
Continuity of care is also improved with the ability for letters and documents to be created straight away and sent to relevant parties ensuring the treatment journey can take place without delays caused by admin and paperwork.
Being able to fully record a patient’s symptoms and condition without resorting to notes also avoids misinterpretation or the need for further investigation and helps to ensure a smooth treatment pathway.
Dr Moukli says: “We are dealing with people’s lives, people’s illnesses and people’s expectations. Their story has to be recorded accurately, correctly for their care and treatment but also for future reference. The software helps me do that. I use natural language and that comes across in my notes. Using detailed notes helps me to recollect details later and also helps my colleagues who may see the patient after me. Secondary care colleagues might also see those notes.”
The impact of how the solution can improve patient safety was highlighted in the experience of a young male patient who had visited Dr Moukli suffering with chest discomfort.
Dr Moukli continues: “I realised we needed to act fast and seek advice from secondary care. I could have just quickly jotted down a couple of words in the notes and let him go, or I could use the software to provide fuller notes that he could take with him. It took about 30/45 seconds; I printed them out and off he went. It meant that he did not have to repeat himself and they did not have to call me and ask for more details. It was all there.”
Creating access and capacity wherever it is needed
Being completely connected to the cloud ensures that GPs can work anywhere with multiple clients, removing any uncertainty as to whether their device will be able to cope with the programme. Working across a wide range of Windows devices, the software is also compatible with all leading electronic patient records.
For Dr Moukli, connection and integration of medical services is the future, a world where clinical letters can be instantly sent from hospital to general practice and where referrals can be made instantly from general practice to secondary care, or where blood results can be acted upon within minutes of the results being known to speed up patient care. This is a world where the focus is completely on the patient.