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TOKOPEN
PROVIDES THE ARCHIVING SOLUTION FOR BRISTOL HOSPITAL
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Using TokOpen to improve patient record management and information
sharing
One of the UK's leading teaching hospitals - linked to a university
and responsible for supporting many other medical institutions
in its region - has adopted a unique document imaging and
archiving solution. Based on the TokOpen DM technology from
document management system developers Tokairo, the system
is producing dramatic cost savings and providing a platform
for improved patient care.
The user is Bristol Royal Infirmary, one of the country's
most respected medical centres, which has close ties with
Bristol University. A key issue is the archiving and storage
of very high volumes of medical records, for which Bristol
Royal Infirmary provides a scanning bureau and support facility
for itself and a number of local hospitals. Many of these
records go back for decades and in addressing the backlog,
archiving involves processing up to 25,000 documents a day.
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The
solution replaced a former imaging/archiving system
that had become unusable after the original developer
had abandoned the DM market sector - and its reseller
declined to continue offering support.
The
result is a rugged, resilient and reliable archiving
system that accommodates very high document volume archiving.
On the foundation of the initial implementation success,
the hospital and Aurora, the TokOpen Partner, are now
pressing forward with plans to develop the UK's most
sophisticated medical archive accessing application.
When completed, it will enable doctors, consultants
and other medical practitioners to look at all relevant
historical records immediately and at just a few keystrokes.
The
system is a flagship solution for other hospitals and
medical institutions. The TokOpen imaging and document
management technology employed also provides a dramatic
example for other sectors where such powerful archive
storage and access functionality is important.
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| Recognised as one of the leading
UK medical institutions, Bristol Royal Infirmary is one of the
country's main teaching hospitals. Closely connected to Bristol
University, it also has links with other local hospitals in
the United Bristol Health Care Trust - www.ubht.nhs.uk.
These include Bristol Children's Hospital, St. Michael's
Hospital, the Dental Hospital and the Bristol Eye Hospital,
for whom the Royal Infirmary provides a scanning bureau service
in respect of imaging and archiving medical records.
With hundreds of thousands of patients being treated at these
institutions every year, the volume of medical records being
created and needing to be stored is enormous. Individual patients
often have courses of treatment that last for years, and doctors
need to be able to access treatment records that may go back
over a long period. The traditional solution had been to store
the hardcopy paper files in equally traditional filing cabinets,
resulting in the need for huge amounts of space and considerable
resource to manage and access the information.
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More
recently, the decision was taken to archive these records
electronically. This provides the opportunity to reduce
the space taken for storage - as well as the prospect
of improving access to the records and case notes. For
some time Bristol Royal Infirmary had been providing
a bureau scanning and imaging service for the local
health care trust - using an established document management
system.
"Unfortunately,
the original system developer pulled out of the market
sector, and the reseller from whom we bought the system
decided that in the circumstances they were unable to
continue supporting the system," says Assistant
Health Records Manager Mark Savage. As a result, the
hospital had to look for a new solution.
"We
took a systematic approach to replacing the system and
explored a number of different options. TokOpen was
chosen as the software solution through a comprehensive
procurement exercise covering product quality, past
history with current users, user recommendations, etc,"
says Savage.
TokOpen is a powerful and comprehensive archiving and
document solution that goes far beyond the conventional
capture and storage of documents. It centrally manages
the flow of documents through a user's organisation,
maintaining constant document and user security by controlling
who can have access to which documents and files.
There
is extremely tight control of file and document editing
- yet immediate on-line access to those who are authorised
- all under a highly disciplined central control regime.
TokOpen developer Tokairo is one of the world's leading
document management/workflow solutions developers, with
offices in the US and Europe.
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| Located
at the centre of a user's document management operation, TokOpen
includes a variety of modules addressing specific functions.
TokOpen Sorting Office used to index and import documents captured
by image scanners, digital copiers, network scan servers, or
a mixture of all, and TokOpen ERM (Enterprise Report Manager)
is used to automatically capture documents and reports created
by transaction systems.
TokOpen
Web provides access to required documents using a standard
web browser across an Intranet, or the Internet. TokOpen Indexer
allows full text searches by automatically indexing the content
of all documents, image and application managed by TokOpen.
"A
lot of the prospective suppliers we considered just wanted
to provide straight document management - we were focused
on very large volume archiving and we wanted a supplier that
would be a partner with us rather than just a vendor, particularly
after our previous experience. We also wanted a software product
that was robust and reliable, and some reassurance that the
developer was committed to the market we are in and likely
to be there in the future," says Savage.
"The
application was very challenging. Currently we are archiving
around 25,000 pages of medical records a day, and as a teaching
hospital we have to ensure that stored records are easily
accessible for research as well as good clinical practice.
The space saving issue is often mentioned as a reason for
electronic archiving and in our case it was a major one, with
records being stored at several sites. So we wanted a solution
provider that would provide continuing support and be there
for us when we needed help".
"We
also wanted flexibility. For example, to reduce costs we wanted
to keep some of our existing hardware such as PCs and scanners.
This was a significant issue and some of the companies we
spoke to wouldn't work with us on that basis. Aurora, the
TokOpen Partner did".
"Implementation
went smoothly and to plan, with few surprises. A key issue
that had to be addressed was the need to migrate over previously
archived material - literally hundreds of gigabytes. Aurora
came up with a solution to re-index the material - and we
moved from writing to optical disc to writing directly to
SAN with data warehouse capabilities, although backup is still
to optical disc," says Savage.
Now up
and running, the system is providing cost savings of around
25 per cent. "We have saved acres of hardcopy filing
space," says Savage, "and with the kind of overhead
such space involves, the cost reduction has been dramatic.
We also have faster access to records, and more importantly,
multiple access that allows several users to examine a particular
file at the same time. Medical records and case notes are
more easily and readily available, and the cost savings in
paper have been enormous. Significantly, the system really
does eliminate paper unlike some solutions where users find
themselves having to hardcopy viewed files".
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Tokairo Ltd
20 Linford Forum, Rockingham Drive, Linford Wood,
Milton Keynes, MK14 6LY, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1908 695 569 | Fax:
+44 (0) 1908 696 961 | E-mail:
info@tokairo.com
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© Copyright 2004 Tokairo
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