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Mail Handling
Based at Queen Elizabeth Hospital
in Gateshead, The North East Hub
for the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening
Programme (BCSP) was established
in 2007. One of only five BCSP Hubs
in England, it provides bowel cancer
screening services for roughly eight
million residents in the North East of
England.
To do this effectively, the BCSP
Hub depends on efficient postal
communications, including the mailing
of an initial contact letter followed by a
test kit containing a card for a small stool
sample that the patient sends back in foil
packaging. Once the sample has been
tested, the patient is notified of the results.
At an early stage Hub Manager Ian
Ward realised that managing the flow
of outgoing mail would be key to the
Hub’s success. “The biggest challenge for
the Hub was not conducting the tests,
but managing the logistics of a call and
recall process that involves sending out
immense numbers of letters and testing
kits. In total, we send out approximately
10,000 letters a day, so hand packing was
never an option for us,” he said.
In 2007, Ian began looking for ways
to automate the Hub’s mail handling
processes and, on the recommendation
of the hospital’s breast screening unit,
contacted Neopost, which suggested an
SI-92 folder inserter and PrintMachine
software.
“Neopost offered us the opportunity
to see a field demonstration of the
SI-92 in action at another customer’s
offices in Newcastle,” Ian explained.
“We were immediately impressed with
the machine’s capabilities and with the
positive feedback from the customer, so
we decided to go ahead and make the
purchase.”
Ian adds that because of the specialist
nature of the BCSP’s testing kits, Neopost
had to make some modifications to the
SI-92 before it was ready to be used.
“One of the initial challenges we
faced was with the testing kits: 2,500
kits are sent out every day, each one of
which includes a covering letter, sample
card, six applicators, foil return envelope
and instruction sheet. The applicators pop
out of a sheet of card, and as such are
delicate and easy to damage during the
packing process. Neopost’s engineering
and development team solved this
problem by modifying the shaft and drive
wheels of our machine to ensure that the
applicators remained intact every time.”
Ian was so impressed by the
machine’s performance that he ordered
a second SI-92 and two mid-range
Neopost DS-86 folder-inserters to cope
with the Hub’s growing mail volumes,
plus a top-of-the-range DS-1200 that
offers even greater levels of automation.
“One task that was still quite
time-consuming was the matching
of personalised test kits to other
personalised documents within the pack,”
he explained. “With thousands of test
kits being packed every day, there was
a high margin for error and it required a
great deal of care and attention to ensure
that no mistakes were made. Although
the original solution helped us cope with
volume, it couldn’t manage the security
aspects of matching the test kit to the
letter.We needed a solution that could
automatically match all test kits and
documents.”
Neopost recommended the Neopost
DS-1200, which can read OMR, BCR,
2D and OCR coding and provides
sophisticated integrity checking software
for 100% accurate mail processing,
How Neopost has streamlined mail handling at one of
England’s five bowel cancer screening Hubs.
No room for error
plus an address printer for printing test
kits with the necessary 2D barcodes.
If a mismatch occurs between the
documents and test kit, the DS-1200
stops immediately, allowing operators to
consult audit logs and find and correct
the problem.
“This has been a great benefit to us,
saved countless man hours and given us
complete confidence that every envelope
received by our patients contains all the
correct personalised documentation and
test kits,” said Ian.
“Once again, we had a problem with
packing the cardboard applicators, so we
visited Neopost’s engineer and support
team in Romford and they came up with
the idea of pre-packing the test kit into
a packet and then inserting the packet
along with the covering letter into an
envelope ready for mailing.”
In addition to the DS-1200, Neopost
has supplied a Neopost DS-140 to handle
any overflow work and provide back-up
when the DS-1200 is being serviced. Like
the DS-1200, the DS-140 can read OMR/
BCR and 2D coding and provides full data
logging of documents.
Ian says he is very happy with his
five-year relationship with Neopost.
“Reliability and quality of output
is excellent, as is the response rate,
training and on-site support provided by
Neopost’s staff.With the new Neopost
solution we have been able to radically
improve efficiency by reducing the man
hours spent on the postal process whilst
simultaneously reducing errors,” he said.
www.neopost.co.uk
IanWard,
Hub Manager,
The North
East Hub
for the NHS
Bowel Cancer
Screening
Programme
In total, we
send out
approximately
10,000 letters
a day, so
hand packing
was never an
option