First steps to a paperless future
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, in partnership with Xerox, is providing health workers
in clinics and admissions centres with instant access to essential information after scanning
81 million pages of patient records and introducing a process for digitising new records.
Clinicians write notes on barcoded forms that are sent for scanning immediately after use. Files
are stored as images and processed through Xerox’s secure, on-site scanning centres, using optical
character recognition (OCR) to enable smart indexing.
By providing authorised users with 24/7 access to electronic, searchable clinical records at the point of
care, on an iPad if necessary, the new system enables health workers to devote more time to patients and
make more informed decisions.
Mike McCabe, a consultant anaesthetist at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “It’s like
flying a plane with radar, instead of without,”
Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust covers three sites in Redditch, Kidderminster and
Worcester and each day sees over 2,000 patients.
Free online digital leadership course
Henley Business School and the University of Reading have
announced a free, four-week course on digital leadership for
senior and middle management.
Delivered on the Future Learn platform, the digital leadership
MOOC (massive open online course) starts on Monday 8 February
2016 and can be completed using a PC, mobile or tablet.
Digital leadership: Creating value through technology a
ims to give
participants confidence in digital leadership and help them to create
value through technology.
Topics covered include: getting the most out of technology;
incorporating emerging technologies into redesigning business
architecture; increasing sales and competitiveness in the digital
age; building creative and dynamic teams using technology; and
strategically aligning business and IT models to deliver value to
customers.
Since the course page launched, more than 5,000 participants
have registered to take part.
Improved access to
finance for SMEs
Last year saw a major
improvement in access to
finance for SMEs, according
to new analysis from
independent venture capital
investor Albion Ventures.
Its new study,
The Albion
Growth Report
, shows that
almost half (44%) of small and
medium-sized firms applying for
development finance over the
past year were successful, up
from 27% in 2014. Of those who
secured finance, nearly a third
(29%) did so to invest in new
equipment, with 26% using the
money to develop new products
and services. Only one in ten
(10%) sought finance to invest
in R&D.
Bank loans and overdrafts
have continued to fall in
popularity, down to 49% in 2015
from 76% in 2013, while the
popularity of third party equity
or other long-term finance has
soared from 6% in 2013 to 34%
in 2015.
Nearly one in five (18%)
SMEs said they were affected
by a lack of access to finance,
rising to a third (32%) among
firms with a turnover of between
£500k–£1m.
Apogee hits the road
Apogee’s Peak Performance
roadshow is touring Britain
again in 2016. The six events
held at iconic sports venues
in February and March will
highlight how organisations
can optimise their document
infrastructure, processes and
workflows and will include
live demonstrations of device
monitoring, mobile working and
the cloud. There will also be
Q&A sessions with sports stars
who can explain how multiple
marginal gains can lead to
a massive overall increase
in performance. The 2016
roadshow starts at Arsenal’s
Emirates Stadium on February
10 and finishes at Headingley
Stadium in Leeds on March 17.
For more details or to book a
place, please call
0845 300 99 55 or email
Network Rail expects to realise over £700m worth of
efficiencies over the next 10 years by replacing paper-based
reporting with a series of custom-designed iOS apps.
Since 2011, Network Rail has rolled out 25,000 iPads and
iPhones, including 18,000 to the maintenance and engineering
teams responsible for delivering its Railway Upgrade Plan.
At the same time, it has developed 60 mobile apps to replace
paper-based processes, bulky manuals and paperwork. These
include Close Call for reporting hazards; MyWork for job scheduling;
Sentinel for employee ID card scanning and authentication; and
Where Am I? for the GPS location of faults and incidents.
A video case study can be viewed at
/
business/network-rail/
Mobile apps on the up
Nine out of 10 IT decision-
makers in the US and
Western Europe expect to
increase their investment
in mobile application
development within the next
12 months, according to
a study by Vanson Bourne
for open source solutions
provider Red Hat. One third
say mobile apps are changing
the way they do business
by reinventing business
processes, compared to 37%
who say they are primarily
used to automate existing
processes.
IT leasing grows
In the twelve months to
September 2015, members
of The Finance and Leasing
Association (FLA) financed
over £4bn worth of IT
and business equipment
investment, a 21% increase
on the previous twelve
months and double the 10%
growth FLA members reported
for each of their other main
markets – cars, commercial
vehicles, plant and machinery.
(source: BNB Paribas,
PrintIT
Reseller
)
Staying on track with
mobile apps
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2015
...in brief
