Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

“We didn’t get a huge number of problems when we went live. I was expecting it to be painful, but it was surprisingly painless!

They delivered what we wanted, they were flexible when we wanted to add things into the spec, and they supported us during the whole project. We never had to wait a week for someone to get back to us - there was usually a response by email or phone on the same day!”

– Dawn Temple-Scott, HR Workforce Planning and Automation Programme Manager, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

The Benefits

• Compliant data security measures for 18,000 staff
• Zero of 375,000 documents lost
• Greater document agility throughout the organisation
• Automatic uploads for completed eForms, eliminating the need for manual uploads of pregnancy risk assessments
• Increased data accuracy, stored in accordance with data security regulations

The Background

As one of the biggest NHS trusts in the UK, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust provides care to over 500,000 people across Northumberland and North Tyneside – with 18,000 staff between 1,200 supervisors, and more than 9,000 staff situated across 30 remote sites.

With such a wide area of operation, the Trust needed to update their very manual processes for storing confidential staff records. This was also a problem for their pregnancy risk assessments, which were highly convoluted and in need of being streamlined.

The Challenge

While uploading the digitised files to a Document Management system seemed to be a straightforward solution, the intricacy and scope of the internal processes demanded a much more tailored approach. Each line manager stored their team personnel files within the onsite HR department – which, while convenient in terms of ease of access, created difficulties when records needed to be transferred.

This dependence on paper records was also hindering the pregnancy risk assessment process. Files were frequently lost, with the Trust often finding it difficult to determine how many were in the pipeline – and a lack of standardisation not only meant information was hard to collate, but also hard to update retroactively.

Each of these issues with manual processes were exacerbated by the pandemic – which introduced a range of extra precautions to ensure safety for both staff and patients. 

The Solution

Personnel records are now stored on the tailored Document Management system, which is now accessible to all managers and HR staff across the Trust’s operations – with strict naming conventions for files ensuring that individual documents can be easily stored, tracked, and secured compliantly. This means that line managers are only able to access records of their own staff; with measures in place that mean that, should staff change departments, the access permissions will update automatically.

Considering this covers 18,000 staff, this makes this particular system one of the most dynamic HR systems available.

Furthermore, introducing eForms to this system has streamlined the pregnancy risk assessment process. Forms are uploaded to the database automatically for easy access, with a standardised structure that can easily be updated retroactively. This system also includes functions that ensure complete transparency of the pipeline, meaning that forms cannot be lost, misplaced, or unactioned.

The Outcome

Following continuous support, consultation, and tutorials on using the Document Management system effectively, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is now able to benefit from streamlined operations, greater document agility, and bolstered data security. Thanks to the eForm functions, they are also now able to effectively oversee the pregnancy risk assessment process; allowing them to deliver a more effective service to patients.

However, the Trust aren’t going to stop there – on the contrary, they intend to use this system as a strong foundation to build upon; with plans to continue exploring the full utility of their Document Management system to benefit their operations.

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