About Balmore Park Surgery

Balmore Park Surgery was established in 1985 and consists of 6 Partners, 6 Salaried GPs, 2 Advanced Nurse Practitioners, 3 Pharmacists, 1 Pharmacy Technician, 8 nurses, 3 Healthcare Assistants, 1 Phlebotomist, 1 Mental Health Practitioner, 2 Social Prescribers and a large administrative support team.

The enthusiastic and friendly team provide a high standard of clinical care to 21,000 patients and is constantly improving existing services and developing new ones. Furthermore, the surgery is unusual in that they keep to very strict doctor lists to encourage continuity.

VoicePower came together with various members of staff at the surgery to discuss their transition to Dragon speech recognition and how their innovative approach has impacted their documentation process and patient care.

Here is what they had to say…

Strain on Secretaries

In previous years Balmore Park Surgery’s main workflow method was traditional transcription. This means that the GPs would record their notes as an audio file and the secretaries would transcribe these at a later date.

“We were previously reliant on secretaries to transcribe all of our documents and type our clinical notes.” – Tom Back, GP

Although transcription can be an effective method if done correctly with encrypted voice recorders and secure platforms, many sites find themselves using inadequate equipment and their work suffers as a result.

In these cases, transcription can cause significant delays in the completion of jobs, which in turn would affect the patient documentation turnaround time for the practice and thus contribute to a backlog.

Additionally, transcription workflows can also create what we call the ‘double-handling loop’ whereby the dictation is created by the doctor, then to the typist and then back to the doctor for approval. Not only is this time-consuming but it requires effort also.

It was for these reasons that Balmore Park Surgery knew they needed to find a better and more efficient way of capturing their documentation, so they reached out to VoicePower Ltd.

Finding Their Voice

When it comes to medical workflows, VoicePower Ltd is the one to go to. As an Elite Healthcare Partner of Nuance Communications and having supplied speech technology for over 25 years, they know their stuff.

When Balmore Park Surgery reached out to explore their options, VoicePower took them through the discovery step of their Workflow Consultancy Service. This involves listening to their requirements and wishes in a new solution; What are their main objectives? What are their IT requirements? Do they have a specific method in mind i.e. speech recognition or digital dictation?

These are all things that VoicePower discussed with Balmore Park Surgery to ensure that what they recommended was the perfect fit.

Following the discovery meeting, the practice decided they definitely wanted a real-time speech recognition solution, but as Tom explains, this wasn’t the first time they had tried the technology:

“We had experimented with voice recognition technology in the past. However, the licenses expired so we worked without it for a brief period. The technology was very much missed but the previous providers had not been supportive when the licenses expired.” – Tom Back, GP

Keen to show Tom and his colleagues the power of speech when done correctly, VoicePower recommended Nuance’s Dragon Medical One solution.

Dragon’s Accuracy is “Very Good”

Once the decision was made for Balmore Park Surgery to roll out Nuance Medical Dictation, VoicePower assisted the site with setting up the licences and also provided personalised training to each user.

“We have had good support from VoicePower with a short transition. The software was functioning at full capacity very quickly. We are very happy with the support we have received.” – Tom Back, GP

VoicePower prides itself on the support it offers to its clients, pinpointing this as the key to success with speech recognition. The 1-2-1 training is a key component in that support and allows the users to know the Nuance Medical dictation software well and utilise its features too.

The GPs at Balmore Park Surgery confirm the value of these sessions, as they express:

“The training was straightforward. It is fair to say that not all our GP’s are particularly IT literate, but everybody has been using the software without difficulties.” – Tom Back, GP

As it stands, the practice has a total of 6 Dragon Medical One users, although this number is due to grow when the new doctors confirm their long-term employment.

“It’s fantastic. The accuracy of the dictation is very good. It takes away the temptation to write brief notes when more detail is required for complex patients.” – Tom Back, GP

Balmore Park Surgery also acknowledge Dragon’s potential as Tom confirms that “it’s very easy to see that the software has the potential to make a difference if expanded across the team.” Furthermore, it’s not just the GPs that are enjoying the benefits of Dragon Medical One, the secretarial team is also enjoying a win:

“Dragon frees up time for our secretaries to focus on the referral processes and manage these more effectively for the benefit of patients.” – Tom Back, GP

Watch Dragon Medical One in action with this demonstration from our existing client, Dr Dilley…