Largest medical group in South West hails Lexacom a game changer as clinicians save hours and patient outcomes are enhanced as GP services nationwide continue to face extreme pressures, and with the latest NHS GP patient experience survey showing 16.6% of patients in England wait more than two weeks for an appointment at their local practice – one primary care network thanks its tech partner for freeing up clinician and staff time.
Mendip Vale Medical Group, which serves 85,000 patients across the South West, says technology from software solutions provider Lexacom has driven efficiencies across its practices, streamlined processes, and freed up hours of clinician time.
Working across Somerset, Bristol and Gloucester – covering areas of incredible deprivation, as well as affluent areas with an older population – Mendip Vale Medical Group is the largest merged practice in the South West, with eight sites and a team of 300 staff. It credits Lexacom, an advanced digital dictation and document creation system, for saving its clinicians up to an hour a day each.
“One of the benefits of merging and working at scale is being able to share resources,” says David Clark, managing partner at Mendip Vale Medical Group. “The Lexacom system allows us to share administrative resources across all our sites, enabling us to optimise efficiencies when it comes to patient notes and reports. It allows us to plug any gaps in terms of administrative support as regardless of where they are based, our admin staff can ‘dip into the pot’, as they call it.”
Prior to using Lexacom, the individual practices relied on tapes. “One of the biggest advantages has been the reduction in the time spent manually handling dictations. In the past, admin staff would have to collect physical tapes, transcribe the contents, and manually file or distribute the documents.
“Unlike traditional tape-based dictation, Lexacom allows our clinicians to easily record their notes and instantly share them with the admin team for further processing. This has significantly reduced turnaround times for referral letters, medical reports, and patient records, and has created more efficient and productive workflows overall.
“Additionally, our teams can easily see which transcriptions are in progress, which are outstanding, and how urgent the dictations are, allowing us to allocate our resources to match demand in real-time. As a multi-site organisation, it is a brilliant tool for helping us manage and maximise administrative resources and avoid workload bottlenecks.”
Support for clinicians
It is estimated that GPs spend 11% of their time on administrative tasks. This administrative burden is not only time-consuming but reduces the time available for patient care.
Digital dictation software allows clinicians to dictate patient notes and referral letters quickly, freeing up valuable time that can be redirected elsewhere. By reducing the time spent on administration, they have more flexibility in their daily schedules, allowing them to see more patients or spend more time addressing complex cases.
According to David, Lexacom saves each of their clinicians up to an hour a day, enabling them to not only spend more time with patients, but also to maintain a better work-life balance.
“Allowing our clinicians to dictate using an app on their phone is hugely beneficial. Besides saving valuable time during the working day, it also enables them to work remotely and catch up with tasks as and when is convenient. This boosts work-life balance for our busy clinicians – they can have dinner with the family and pick up some admin afterwards.”
Patient care and compliance
David is keen to share with other primary care networks how the streamlined workflow provided by Lexacom has a direct impact on patient care.
“With faster turnaround times for patient documentation, patients receive referral letters and medical reports more quickly, leading to faster access to specialist care and diagnostic services. The ability to update patient records in real time also ensures that all members of the healthcare team have access to the most current information, reducing the risk of errors and improving the overall quality of care,” he says.
As the software features secure storage and encryption, it also helps Mendip Vale Medical Group comply with GDPR requirements. “Lexacom offers peace of mind when it comes to protecting patient confidentiality. And as it allows us to manage access rights, we can ensure that only authorised staff can view or edit patient records, reducing the risk of data breaches.”
Embracing technology an imperative for busy practices
“We acknowledge that technology can be a game-changer for increasing efficiency and enhancing patient outcomes. As such, we are always looking for solutions to make our practices more effective and efficient,” says David.
Dr Joanna King, a GP at Mendip Vale Medical Group, agrees. “With limited capacity and longer waiting lists for referrals, we find we are holding our patients longer and seeing them more often. Striving to make a difficult job easier by making changes to how we can work more effectively and efficiently is critical in the current climate.”
David continues: “As we’ve merged various independent practices, we’ve rolled out Lexacom, introducing it to the teams joining us. Interestingly, we’ve never hit any real barriers with it. A key element throughout has been that Lexacom’s technology flexes around the user, rather than the other way around. We’ve also never had any negative feedback. We remain impressed with the quality of the digital dictations and find the system incredibly easy to use. Throughout seven mergers, it has been one of few constants and happily embraced by all. If a better alternative exists, we haven’t found it.”
Lexacom was founded by Dr Andrew Whiteley in 1999. A practicing GP at the time, he recognised how antiquated and unreliable analogue dictation systems were a blocker to patient care. Determined to build a revolutionary solution to support clinicians, he developed the first incarnation of Lexacom’s digital dictation software. For a quarter of a century, it has been used by GPs and other healthcare providers nationwide to save time and reduce stress.
“In modern healthcare settings, embracing technology is imperative to maintain high standards of care, improve operational efficiency, and keep up with increasing patient loads. Our Lexacom system is designed to do exactly that,” says Andrew.
“As Mendip Vale Medical Group has found, it is the ideal solution for medical practices looking to replace old-fashioned tape-based dictation systems. We are thrilled that they have been able to use our solution to optimise their operations, support their clinical and administrative teams, and enhance patient care.”
