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Hampshire Hospitals deploys next generation TalkingPoint workflow
Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (HHFT) has recently deployed the latest generation of TalkingPoint for cutup reporting. This recent deployment resolves interoperability issues between a legacy LIMS and Roche Vantage sample tracking software to create an efficient cut-up reporting workflow.
The pathology service at HHFT has been using TalkingPoint Speech Recognition process automation technologies since 2009 to support histopathology reporting. In recent years, Biomedical Scientists (BMS) at Royal Hampshire County Hospital have been using TalkingPoint to work unassisted in the cut-up room.
A key benefit of using TalkingPoint’s speech recognition enabled workflow in cut-up is that it removes the need for an assistant scribe to work alongside a BMS whilst also removing the need for secretarial typing support.
Lewis Beard, Biomedical Scientist, HHFT explains: “We usually run two cut-up rooms simultaneously. Without TalkingPoint, we would need two extra lab assistants to scribe what the BMSs are reporting, and we would also need secretarial support to type up the reports.”
With a national shortage of Pathologists and Biomedical Scientists, adopting technologies that support flexibility in the laboratory workforce is essential.
Lewis continues: “Within our laboratory team, using a scribe in cut-up would be an inefficient use of resource. Enabling cut-up operators to work unassisted frees up the MLAs (medical laboratory assistants) to do other necessary work in the lab.”
Following the installation of the Roche Vantage sample tracking software, HHFT approached TalkingPoint to streamline the cut-up workflow automation to resolve interoperability issues between a legacy LIMS system and the new tracking solution.
HHFT required The TalkingPoint Team to modify the TalkingPoint workflow to drive communication between the legacy LIMS and Vantage in order to continue to deliver a robust cut-up reporting workflow that enables the BMS team to maximise the benefits of speech recognition in cut-up.
The role of a cut-up assistant is to write down everything the BMS is saying and to input information into the LIMS such as blocking information and tissue retention settings. This can take some time to complete, and errors can occur. The TalkingPoint cut-up automation actions all these changes automatically whilst the BMS is dictating.
Lewis explains: “Using TalkingPoint, we simply use speech recognition to dictate the clinical details of the case and the macro description of the specimen and enter in all of the necessary information about whether there is any tissue remaining, how many pieces of tissue there are etc. Using simple voice commands throughout, you also use TalkingPoint to describe what type of tests need to be done next and, if you need any extra blocks, you also complete this in TalkingPoint. Once the report is completed, TalkingPoint copies it over into the LIMS so that it is ready for anyone to view immediately.”
The BMS team at HHFT report that, although using TalkingPoint in cut-up may require a couple of extra minutes to produce each report, there is a significant turnaround time and cost saving to the department. The cut-up room operates efficiently with less staff and there is no delay between dictating the macro report and it being available in the LIMS.
The cut-up rooms at Royal Hampshire County Hospital process between 300-500 blocks per day and backlogs of typing have occurred in the past when the secretarial team have been overwhelmed with the number of transcriptions needed.
Lewis adds: "With the TalkingPoint workflow, the cut-up operator can see exactly what's being written in the dictation box and know that it has been saved correctly to the report and that the report is immediately available for use. This process involves less people, reduces the likelihood of errors and speeds up turnaround time.”
Malcolm Grant, Managing Director, The TalkingPoint Team, commented: “Interoperability issues between legacy LIMS and new and innovative pathology systems are commonplace. However, these are complex systems and we have worked closely with the team at Hampshire and with Roche to redefine the reporting workflow needs of the cut-up room. This has required an iterative development process where we have incorporated several improvements above and beyond the original specification at no additional cost; delivering a cut-up reporting workflow that maximises the ability of the LIMS to communicate with Vantage and supports BMSs to work unassisted.”
