As part of its Outpatient transformation programme, Kings College Hospital has implemented Docman RMS for the electronic management of referrals. The Trust vision at the outset of the project was to create a fully electronic referral management process that delivered increased administrative flexibility and efficiency whilst retaining current levels of granularity in clinical decision making.
The Trust’s objective was to redesign the outpatient referral process as part of a wider strategy to become paper-light.
Docman RMS has ensured that patient referral turnaround is a lot faster and that documents cannot be lost or misplaced. The Trust is now completing referrals within hours rather than days, meaning that patients have the information faster and there are fewer phone calls enquiring about the referral status. The electronic system also means that when patients do call for information, it is readily available to staff who can quickly provide an accurate update from the detailed audit trail of activity. Previously, it was impossible to know where the document was in the process, or even if it had been received. This streamlined approach, without the need for local knowledge, has ensured the most appropriate pathway is chosen and a reduction in inappropriate or misdirected referrals.
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