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An NHS trust has forecast it could save up to £3.9 million over five years and free up 30% of medical secretaries’ time by using speech recognition, according to a report commissioned by G2 Speech.

The reserch done by a large NHS acute trust, examined ways to solve a backlog of patient letters and reports caused by outdated tape equipment and a shortage of qualified medical secretaries. The trust has 1,558 beds spread over two hospital sites. The study concluded that the G2 Speech software, MediSpeech, which is powered by the speech recognition engine SpeechMagic from Nuance, was better suited than alternative solutions such as outsourced transcription services and digital dictation. Among the benefits that prompted the NHS acute trust to pick MediSpeech were that, compared to other solutions, it can be tailored to work with any hospital information system. Other considerations included clinicians found it easy to configure to suit their preferred way of working and excellent, ongoing customer support.

“They piloted outsourced transcription and digital dictation, and found speech recognition to be the way forward,” says Henry Gallagher, Managing Director of G2 Speech UK Ltd, commenting on the report. “There really is no contest between the ROI and improvements to workflow achievable with MediSpeech compared to outsourced transcription and digital dictation solutions. A properly implemented, integrated speech recognition solution wins hands down every time. The system can improve document turnaround time and tackle understaffing by improving staff efficiency, the report says. Secretaries receive draft documents to edit accompanied by dictation recordings boasting excellent quality sound. It allows clinicians to prioritise transcription work, so the secretaries will process the reports in the correct order.

Another benefit is the security of patient data, according to Henry Gallagher. “Patient demographic data accompanies the documents through the computer system,” he says. “It greatly reduces the likelihood of clinical error. This, plus the faster delivery of results and reports, improves patient care.”This report is the latest in a series of studies showing the benefits of speech recognition, with optional digital dictation, in UK hospitals.One such study, Henry says, found secretaries corrected 70 documents in half a day by improving the workflow with speech recognition.“The time savings and the efficiency gains are enormous. With the old way of doing it, it is not possible to do anywhere near 70 reports in half a day. You’d be lucky if you could do 20,” he says. A study at a different hospital showed that the improved workflow, due to MediSpeech, allowed them to save £64,000 on postage alone.

Source: The British Journal of Healthcare Computing and Information Management

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