SRC and PCTI sign deal

Tags: GP

03 Nov 2009

Digital dictation and voice recognition software supplier SRC has announced that it has signed an agreement with document management specialist PCTI Solutions to enable NHS trusts to deliver electronic documents to GP surgeries.

The agreement means PCTI’s Electronic Document Transfer solution, which captures documents from hospital systems and transfers them to GP practices, has been integrated with SRC’s WinScribe digital dictation, template management and document production systems.

The companies claim the solution will provide a cost-effective means for trusts to meet the target of delivering discharge summaries within 24 hours from April next year. They say it should also enable significant savings on printing and delivery costs.

GPs using Docman EDT will be able to receive electronic documents into a central location for filing to the patient record and onward workflow. Practices where Docman is not deployed will be able to receive documents electronically using EDT.

Chris Hart, chief executive officer at SRC, said the partnership meant SRC could now provide a solution from recording through to final distribution.

He added: "The electronic document distribution capability has the potential to deliver immense benefits to our customer base of over 45 trusts.”

Philip Young, development director at PCTI Solutions, said the partnership would offer more users to benefit from the company’s electronic document transfer solution and help hospitals bridge the gap between document production and delivery.

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Reader's Comments

A great step forward, but no cigar yet

04 Nov 09 09:11

I applaud anything that makes communication between secondary and primary care better.

Why no cigar then?

Making communication slicker is only a small part of the overall improvement needed. What we really need is for hospital clinicians to provide better quality information when discharging patients and for GP’s to read and act on the information (rather than just delegating this to a receptionist/secretary)

I can't wait!

david.churchill@nhs.net

05 Nov 09 18:11

Our local PCT set all the GP's up with special e-mail addresses which have to be checked a couple of times a day. Since June, the local hospitals have managed to send us a grand total of 7 e-mailed letters, discharge summaries and A & E reports - one of them for a pateint 30 miles away with a totally different practice - with no phone number or e-mail address of the sender to return it, needing a printed copy to be sent to the PCT for forwarding.

So, many hours spent logging in for no benefit.

And the hospitals, wanting no doubt to impress the GPs with their grandeur, use a huge image file on the top of each letter complete with the NHS logo and the name of the hospital in very big bold letters so that the heading takes 1-2 minutes to download over NHSmail, while the actual meat of the letter usually says "cut finger, strapping" and would transmit in a few microseconds if properly formatted.

Am I glad I retire next year......??

standards better and cheaper

09 Nov 09 21:11

Using a scanning solution to handle electronic messages seems a bit backwards, and I wonder at how cost effective it is.

It certainly wouldn't be universal given the mix of GP systems in our patch, and the variety of ways Secondary Care clinicians insist on creating their correspondance.

If this were easy, it would have been cracked before, but with the prospect of CfH systems sweeping all before them, investment has been stifled.

Sadly, it takes something like the 24 hour target to give this the priority it has long deserved.