By scanning patient records for NHS Scotland’s Southern Medical Group we’ve helped to free up the space for new treatment rooms, new offices and a brighter reception area.
Serving 8,000 patients, the Southern Medical Group employs around 20 people. This includes six GPs and eight administrative staff. Located in an old Victorian building, their paper medical records had built up over the years. As a result, they had a cluttered workspace that made patient information hard to find. One staff member working in a former bedroom had ended up surrounded by cupboards!
Taking advantage of Scottish Government funding, they made a successful bid that would enable them to digitise their patient records. Which meant they could also reconfigure their offices.
Having already delivered similar projects for more than 150 other GP practices, they chose our scanning services.
With the funding only available until the end of March 2020, we had to work fast.
Due to the limited space on site, we agreed that the records would be removed in two tranches. Each set of boxes were packed by the practice and collected by us. We then double-checked the contents at our secure business centre against inventories prepared by the staff.
In just three weeks, we completed the scanning and the records were ready to be uploaded to the Docman electronic document management system. We committed to locating any unscanned records within hours, using a tried and tested ‘Scan on Demand’ service. This ensured that medical staff had access to the correct records in a timely manner.
Since the scanning and reconfiguration, there’s now a new clinical space for blood tests and a transformed reception area. There’s also seven staff members in the previously cramped bedroom space.
Practice Manager Michelle Lyall describes the comparison between the old and new set-up as ‘night and day’.