Cobham Day Surgery is the latest health organisation to reduce its patient document turnaround times using digital dictation. The problems associated with analogue tapes have also been eradicated while supporting Cobham’s plans to become a paperless unit.

Document turnaround times at Cobham have been cut by around 50%, after being reduced to approximately 3-4 days when compared to the previous 7-10 days before it deployed the BigHand digital dictation technology.

Incorporating over 30 consultants and five secretaries across two sites, Cobham's BigHand system has enabled consultants to record important notes and instantly submit them to a pool of secretaries across either site for immediate transcription.

The eradication of analogue tapes, which would often end up broken or lost (especially working cross-site) and with the sound quality deteriorating, has allowed Cobham to eliminate the detrimental effect of analogue tapes slowing down the document turnaround process.

Michelle Campbell, administration manager at Cobham Day Surgery, said, “We aimed to achieve a faster, more reliable service and so far we feel we are well on our way to achieving that. In addition, the surgery is working towards becoming a paperless unit. Hopefully, in time, we will be able to work without notes completely, so having BigHand digital dictation compliments our own future plans.”

NHS organisations that have already rolled out BigHand technology include Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, and Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.