Newcastle Upon Tyne NHS Foundation Trust

“Apogee are subject experts in what they do - they know what they can give you, how to sell their product, what they do, and how to support it. They don’t just sell it and leave.” 
– John Campbell, Data Centre Manager of Newcastle upon Tyne NHS Foundation Trust

 The Benefits

-        ­Digitised archives provide robust data security, while also allowing specific files to be located and accessed quickly by workers, clinicians, managers, and teachers when required

-        Hundreds of millions of digital files (40 terabytes) are all accounted for and backed up in line with UKAS-accredited ISO standards, allowing the Trust to repurpose existing space effectively and with peace of mind

-        Fast, tailored, and affordable support given to HR, Finance, Clinical Specialties, and Nursing divisions across the entire Trust, relieving burden from their IT teams

-        Automated workflows allow employee study leave applications to be processed quickly, with functions that automatically generate case files for new recruits

-       Document Management system can be customised and expanded for extra utility, future-proofing the Trust’s operations cost-effectively

The Background

As a teaching hospital with over 16,000 staff, The Newcastle upon Tyne Foundation Trust is one of the largest providers of specialised medical services in England. Having been on their digital transformation journey for the last 23 years, the Trust’s extensive use of Digital Workplace Services led to them being one of the first Digital Exemplars for NHS England.

The Trust’s digital journey began in the early 2000s, when staff were having trouble locating important files due to archives being at capacity – but due to their status as a teaching hospital, the Trust were unable to shred files to make space. To allow them to archive files digitally, Apogee implemented and supported a Document Management system; with the many resulting benefits and efficiencies cementing their ongoing business relationship.

The Challenge

The Trust’s plans to move to digital patient records was interrupted by the 2020 pandemic – and with the NHS having an urgent need to maximise their available space, the Trust had a significant challenge on their hands. Cataloguing, managing, and transporting over 1 million sets of patient notes offsite had to be completed securely; and had to be done without compromising continuity of patient care.

As a teaching hospital, The Trust had the additional burden of processing countless study leave requests for their teams. However, this process was heavily limited by the reliance on paper documents, which had to be passed between many levels of management for approval – meaning requests often took a long time to be processed.

The Solution

Our pre-existing relationship made it easier to create an urgent action plan – and, working together with the Trust, we were able to individually catalogue, transport, and convert 9,000 sets of notes per day for four months, equating to 62,000 archive boxes. To provide a sense of scale of this undertaking, if each of these boxes were laid end-to-end, they would span the equivalent of 15 miles!

By uploading these files to their existing Document Management system, the Trust were able to maintain access to important files when they needed them – meaning they could uphold their standard of patient care, even at the height of a global crisis.

Where the application process was concerned, Apogee designed an employee eForm that would link directly to the HR case file system – which are set up with automatic workflows that route the applications to relevant managers once certain approvals have been completed. In order to future-proof, Apogee also set up workflows that generate case files automatically when new employees are recruited.

The Outcome

With their archives digitised, the Trust were able to reallocate thousands of metres of prime clinical space to vital admin and patient care; saving them millions of pounds in the process. Medication admin teams were also able to easily search for, request, and receive digitised files through the Document Management system; equipping them to quickly deliver effective care into areas that badly needed it.

The study leave application process has been similarly streamlined; with the Trust now processing more than 4,500 applications a year – and now as an entirely digital process, staff are able to track progress of individual applications, with managers able to delegate workflows when people are absent. Furthermore, since this is linked to the HR system, data is updated automatically; meaning that everyone is operating from accurate information. 


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