How OPEX is providing digitisation solutions for the NHS

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As we readjust and revaluate best business practises instigated by the Coronavirus pandemic, it has never been a more crucial time to address the digitisation of healthcare records. Staff shortages, social distancing and a new way of working have brought on additional challenges to the NHS and OPEX has the solution to help minimise these pressures, explains Paul Finch, Sales Director EMEA.

As a results-driven, solutions-based organisation, OPEX has already helped over 30 NHS Trusts across the UK streamline medical records in-house and has helped make the digitisation process as seamless as possible. With an innovative approach, OPEX is best placed to supply a variety of unique, automated solutions with proven experience in the healthcare industry.

Key benefits of digitisation include creating additional physical space and increased work-flow efficiency. Digitalisation not only saves time, reduces the margin for human error, eliminates missing or misplaced files but also provides round the clock access to healthcare records. Hospitals can also expect regulatory compliance and the elimination of warehouses full of records, creating a substantial cost saving on operating expenses.

North Bristol Hospital NHS Trust (NBT), one of the largest hospitals in the UK decided to embark on the journey to digitisation. Before they approached their digitisation strategy, NBT stored a total of 400,000 medical records in two warehouses, as well as 800,000 additional records at off-site storage facilities. The hospital received daily deliveries of approximately 850 paper files.

NBT introduced an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS), which would provide instant access to patient medical records for the hospital’s 6,000 clinicians, nursing, and administrative staff. The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), an organisation that provides back-end support to the NHS, determined that OPEX Falcon scanners were the best available product in the market for the complex, challenging task at hand.

Commenting on the digitisation, Vinny Butler, Head of Scanning Services, NHS Business Authority said: “We recognised that OPEX’s Falcon is the go-to product for scanning medical records and patient files, due to the significant labour savings, increased security and document integrity, combined with a powerful chain of custody associated with all records”.

Digitisation will not only help create a more efficient NHS but will also improve care and outcomes for patients. OPEX currently deals directly with 30 NHS customers across the UK, and many more BPO’s. Each capture and transform a vast array of unstructured paper workflows into structured digital output for onward ingestion into back-end systems, with hundreds of OPEX’s machines already installed across the UK and Ireland, creating billions of images annually.