iMedX Provides End To End Cloud Clinical Documentation Solution to Southern DHB

FEATURE – Case Study - iMedX

iMedX partnered with Southern District Health Board (SDHB) to deliver a replacement to legacy dictation and transcription workflow solution Soprano MedDocs and Olympus, and rolled the solution out remotely during the Covid-19 lockdown. The DHB now has a scalable platform that can support its clinical documentation roadmap.

Southern DHB is responsible for planning, funding and providing publicly funded health care services for the Southern district. SDHB has hospitals in Dunedin, Wakari (Dunedin), Invercargill and Queenstown. They also contract health services from rural hospitals, their primary health organisation, pharmacies, aged residential care facilities and much more.

In the provision of this care, SDHB was dealing with typing and dictation systems that were reaching the end of their life.

Customer situation:

Their legacy software was outdated and no longer supported by the vendor. Additionally, Covid lockdowns in March 2020 challenged the service; clinicians and medical typists needed a flexible solution to enable them to work from home, allowing the service to continue, which required the ability to work remotely and to meet their strategic requirements in terms of cost, efficiency, service quality, was cloud based and future proof.

iMedX Solution At A Glance:

• All inclusive SaaS model covers all modules, platform and updates.  
• 6-week implementation conducted remotely during Covid, including iPM, HCS and EDI integration.
• 268 clinicians dictating and signing off via smartphone.
• 40 typists onboarded to the transcription solution via remote training.
• Accessing overflow typists is one click of a button enabling strong backlog control or co-source services.

“Having an end-to-end system is important and iMedX gives us that.” Paddy Lewis, SDHB

SDHB Needs:

Implement a fit for purpose solution that met the user, operational and business needs of the DHB;

• Mitigate clinical risk to patient safety

They wanted a way to manage backlogs in transcription and avoid outages, or platform availability issues.

• Cost optimisation

SDHB required a solution that was cost effective to implement, helped to reduce costs and increase workflow efficiency without high capex expenditure and licensing costs, and with opex savings.

• Increased reporting

With so many users across the DHB, they wanted better insight into their documentation workflows via access to better data sets. 

• Workflow efficiency

A solution that supported clinician productivity, replicated current templates and accelerated dictation-to-document destination timeframes, as well as enabling simple access to overflow transcription when required.

• System integration

Improved data integrity and data workflows via appropriate system integration were key, specifically capability in integrating with the HCS portal.

• Cloud technology

A solution that could align to their platform requirements whilst also being light touch on ICT requirements, highly available and redundant.

• Scalability

SDHB wanted a platform that can handle not only the sheer volume of work required but also any future growth.

• Seamless implementation

SDHB wanted a guarantee and assurance that implementation would be smooth with maximum user uptake and minimal disruptions or delays and could be completed remotely.

• End-user satisfaction

Ensuring the workflow and processing needs of the typists and clinicians were accommodated and improved upon were key. 

• Managed services

As SDHB navigates their clinical digitisation roadmap, they were looking for a provider which helped them administrate their solution, not just by providing technology but by also providing ongoing support and administrative assistance. 

SDHB At A Glance:

• 300,000-plus outpatient appointments per year
• 900 dictating clinicians in scope
• 120 typists in scope
• 5 hospital sites
• 2 PAS systems
• Health Connect South utilisation 

Solution Overview:

iMedX identified the key requirements and devised a solution and implementation plan that would deliver on them as quickly as possible. iMedX deployed eScription One, an all-in-one cloud-based solution that connects all key platforms and stakeholders. eScription One is specifically designed for medical transcription workflows for enterprise hospitals with high-volume, high-user bases. 

Integration Solution:

• iMedX installed one small virtual server to deliver all inbound and outbound integration.
• Integration with PAS-enabled smartphone- enabled schedules.
• Integration with Clinical Portal HCS ensures completed transcriptions can be viewed by users, including GPs.
• Integration with EDI drastically reduced costs associated with mail and improved delivery to recipients. 

Workflow solution:

• eScription One is multi-tenant and is designed to support all DHB hospitals, departments and clinical users in one single platform.
• Clinicians can easily move between sites, and typists can type for different hospitals and remotely.
• Soprano MedDocs and legacy dictation capture workflows were migrated.
• The solution comes with native access to iMedX overflow typists if required, enabling SDHB to seamlessly outsource work if needed and have end to end reporting across the process.

Implementation Solution:

• Working closely with a small project team iMedX devised a phased approach which enabled the customer to onboard all staff remotely.
• The platform is extremely simple and user intuitive enabling many users to self-train.
• iMedX created customised online learning management solutions which enabled users to self-train.
• iMedX managed the project end to end.

Services solution:

• iMedX is a managed services partner of SDHB and subsequently works collaboratively with the DHB on supporting the workflow health.
• iMedX administrate all users, templates and workflow functions and advises the DHB on how best to utilise the comprehensive features.

Outcomes for SDHB users:

Clinicians experienced

• Intuitive dictation, review and approval processes mean clinicians learned the solution in minutes.
• Improved dictation flexibility via the free smartphone app.
• Improved mobility means that Clinicians are able to edit and approve online or via the app. 
• Real-time access to patient appointment list and transcription history on their smartphone.

Typists benefited from

• Increased productivity via software designed specifically for Medical Transcriptionists, including built in medical dictionaries and auto text. 
• Automated dictation templates, document templates, clinician preferences and instructions enable the typists to produce exactly what is needed for each clinician.
• The ability to self-train via the inbuilt training system as well as iMedX’s learning management solution
• In-built QA levels and QA programs enable comprehensive training and quality control. 
• Highly customisable pools enable them to configure myriad routing workflows to optimise their physician references.

Managers leveraged

• Simple documentation lifecycle work and available reports. 
• Easy access to outsource typists with no added cost, clunky workflows or loss of optics on the transcription process.
• A managed implementation process, including all communications, training and support. 
• 24/7/365 remote support for Administrators, Clinicians and Typists from the iMedX support team.

System Admins and IT benefited from

• Minimal capex for technology and training.
• Cloud solution delivers high availability and scalability.
• The light touch ICT model made it easy to onboard to existing teams.
• Native and agile integration capability meant connecting to iPM, HCS and EDI workflows simple.
• Simple and user intuitive platform means everything is easy to administrate from users, templates to workflows.
• SaaS model ensures accurate solution cost management and includes all module version upgrades. 

Outcomes for SDHB

SDHB now has a scalable platform that can support its clinical documentation roadmap. SDHB will be able to leverage iMedX technology and services the way that best suits the DHB as it grows.

View the case study PDF here

If you would like to provide feedback on the above feature article please contact the editor Rebecca McBeth.

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