Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust

The Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust provides acute treatment and care for a catchment population of around 500,000 people in Bath, and the surrounding towns and villages in North East Somerset and Western Wiltshire. The Trust occupies a 52-acre site about 1½ miles from Bath city centre and became a National Health Service Trust in 1992.

The histopathology team at the hospital focus on analysing tissue specimens, for the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of a wide range of diseases. The team work under intense pressure on a day-to-day basis, running to tight deadlines in stressful situations. Due to the nature of the work, it is crucial that all reporting is undertaken as efficiently and accurately as possible, as a result medical staff at the hospital dictate their findings and this information is then transcribed by a team of secretaries.

In early 2003, the histopathology department looked into investing in new software which would improve the process of transferring dictated information to written format. After considerable research, WinScribe became the chosen supplier.

Lucinda Payne Johns, laboratory manager commented, "The WinScribe Software seemed simple to use and certainly looked as if it would save the department a considerable amount of time and money. Our main concern is providing the best possible service to our patients whether directly or indirectly. Being able to transcribe quickly and efficiently means that we can provide our results in a significantly reduced time frame."

WinScribe specialise in Digital Dictation, Transcription, Speech Recognition and Workflow Management. Their software was installed at Bath's Royal United Hospital in April 2003 and is currently utilised by five secretaries, one dissection room, six consultants, one specialist registrar and one lab manager. On the radiology system staff have two telephone ports which enable authors to dictate using any touch tone telephone or microphones with barcode scanners attached.

"We were surprised at how easy the installation process proved to be. A technical team visited the hospital and installed the software onto our system in a matter of hours, it was then a case of us providing specific details of how many people would be using the WinScribe software." said Lucinda Payne-Johns.

The system has worked successfully for the past three years and there are now plans for the WinScribe software to be utilised by additional staff, more specifically the pathology manager's secretary and two more lab managers.

"The benefits of using WinScribe's software have been significant. The software is very easy to use, none of our staff have had any issues and they have all noticed how much time they have saved on a day-to-day basis. From a management perspective, the software enables senior staff to trouble shoot any problems themselves, rather than needing to get technical assistance from WinScribe. In the past year, we have probably had to contact them only a couple of times, as generally either myself or a colleague can access the 'management system' and rectify the any problem quickly and efficiently. For us, this is a huge benefit, as we rely so heavily on the software and cannot afford to wait for engineers to visit the hospital." explained Lucinda Payne-Johns.