Leeds resumes digital dictation

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has resumed its digital dictation and speech recognition project after it was put on hold due to major delays in the production of patient letters.

Leeds signed a contract with SRC in 2011 to provide the trust with an integrated digital dictation and document management system. After experiencing several problems since it began the £1.9m project, the trust decided to halt the roll-out in March.

“Introducing new systems into an already complex technological environment inevitably results in a few problems. Where this causes particular difficulty it is right to pause so we can review the best way to resolve those difficulties,” a spokesman said in a statement from the trust at the time.

“In dermatology, any problems with the technology have been compounded by local issues and we acknowledge this has resulted in delays, which we regret. We are taking actions to address the situation in this specialty and expect to resolve it shortly.”

Patient group Leeds Dermatology Patient Panel reportedly claimed the system had caused patient letters to be delayed by up to 60 days.

The trust spokesman told EHI this week that the issues had now been resolved and the project was “back on track”, but could not provide any further detail.

The trust’s deputy informatics director, Eileen Jessop, told EHI on a site visit in March that the implementation had posed certain difficulties with mixed results.

“We’re coming to the end of our digital dictation project and we’ve broken it,” she said.

“It hasn’t got its problems sorted out. We continue to go back and try to perfect it.”

She added that Leeds was one of the largest NHS trusts in the country and, according to SRC, it was the biggest project the company had ever undertaken.

The digital dictation project is a part of the trust’s comprehensive five year, £37m informatics strategy, which was approved by the board in 2011.

When Leeds signed the contract for the system, a spokesperson said the trust hoped to reduce medical secretary posts by around a third..