News
TalkingPoint completes all-remote installation at Royal Gwent Hospital
With the current Covid-19 pandemic social distancing restrictions in place, TalkingPoint has completed a rapid “all-remote” deployment of the TalkingPoint Pathology speech enabled histology reporting workflow at Royal Gwent Hospital, Aneurin Bevan Health Board.
To date, six Consultant Pathologists have received one-to-one remote training and are now all using TalkingPoint to report 100% of cases. Additional users, due to receive training in the coming weeks, include a further four Consultant Pathologists, one reporting Biomedical Scientist and Biomedical Scientists at the cut-up bench.
Dr James Harrison, Consultant Pathologist, commented: “We have wanted speech recognition for a long time in this department as we thought it could deliver time-saving benefits and enable staff to be redeployed to help better manage the workload.
With each of us reporting approximately 3,500 cases a year, we had previously used digital dictation in the department and had tried speech recognition without success. When I became involved in looking at digital pathology and other supporting technology, through the Efficiency in Technology Fund for Pathology, we saw TalkingPoint present their Pathology workflow in Cardiff. We were very interested, and I have been in close contact with Dr Aslam, the Head of Department at The Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) Cellular Pathology Service, as they already use TalkingPoint for Histopathology reporting and cut up. A site-visit there helped us confirm that TalkingPoint was the best solution from the laboratory point of view as well as reporting.”
In just a few short weeks since deploying TalkingPoint, the department has reassigned staff in preparation for the anticipated upsurge in surgical caseloads that will follow as social distancing measures are relaxed.
Elaine Pilley, Business Support Officer, commented: “There was a lot of entry into day books that was really slowing us down and there were 6 secretaries typing cases onto LIMS before switching to TalkingPoint. We have been able to free up much of the secretaries’ time to participate in Cancer Services work such as MDTs and referrals. Once the BMS training at cut-up is completed the laboratory should benefit from additional workforce as the cut-up assistant can be released for other laboratory duties.”
Time saving was a key-driver for implementing TalkingPoint.
Dr Harrison continues: “In terms of reporting the cases, it is actually probably a little slower at present as I am working on complex cancer cases. However, my dictation now doesn’t sit in a list to be typed up and doesn’t come back to me to be reviewed. If I added up all that time, reporting by voice is definitely a much faster process and I suspect that once I’m using TalkingPoint’s rapid reports for routine reporting, it will get quicker.
TalkingPoint has taken out all of the double-handling of our reports and I certainly do not want to go back to using regular dictation. As soon as I’ve authorised a report, it’s gone! I don’t have to worry about whether a report has been typed up.”
TalkingPoint for Pathology is now being rolled out onto some of the Consultants’ laptops, providing them with the facility to report remotely and giving the team greater flexibility around managing their reporting workload versus meeting attendance and other commitments. Workforce flexibility, and the ability to share workloads will be essential to supporting the delivery of Pathology Services going forward.
Dr Harrison concludes: “Pathology is in a precarious position due to national staff shortages. The only way to increase resilience will be to share work across borders and work in a more collegiate way. I think this is the endpoint that everyone working in Pathology in Wales is aiming for – moving forward together to deliver local healthcare that is networked in order to provide the best possible service to patients. Innovations like digital pathology and TalkingPoint will enable us to do that.”
For further information on GHG Software Developments Limited or TalkingPoint please log onto www.talkingpoint.uk.com or telephone: +44 (0)1908 565 663.
