07 September 2009

King’s Mill Hospital in Nottinghamshire is celebrating one year’s operation of the Savience automated check-in system for its out-patient clinics. Queuing is now a thing of the past for patients at the King’s Treatment Centre (KTC), which handles 278,000 outpatients each year, and very significant amounts of staff time have been saved.

“In planning for the opening of the King’s Treatment Centre in August 2008, we knew that we needed state-of-the-art tools and processes to match our new building and improve our patients’ experience,” explained Ann Gray, Patient Services Manager at the King’s Treatment Centre. “I’m now delighted to say that we have just such a system in place and its deployment has been a remarkably pain-free experience.”

As a result of an increase in referrals, queues and bottle-necks were starting to be encountered with the previous King’s Mill outpatient reception system, which was based on one main waiting area and multiple clinic waiting areas. The delays produced stress and frustration for staff and patients alike.

After piloting the automatic Savience Check-in in the trauma and orthopaedic clinic, which has one of the most complex patient pathways through the hospital, staff and patients were very impressed by the results. Patients of all ages were willing and able to use the touch screen reception terminals even though they had the option of using a receptionist. Immediately queues became shorter.

Savience Check-in is now deployed in the new reception management system for the entire King’s Treatment Centre.  Savience has customised its check-in technology so that it integrates seamlessly with the other hospital IT systems enabling, for example, the daily downloading of appointment data to provide a real-time view of appointments progress, and the ability to deliver patient notes in advance of patients’ arrival in clinic.

In the past nine months, more than 100,000 patients of all ages have successfully used Savience Check-in at the KTC and received their information and instructions within 2-3 seconds. Up to 1200 appointments (98%) are dealt with by the system daily and failure rates at check-in are virtually nil.

Ann Clay, KTC Manager, in reviewing the new check-in system said “Relieving the burden on reception desks has been a real positive. We’ve freed up receptionist time to prepare for the next clinic and given our staff the time they need to address our 18 week referral target. And patients are happier too!”

For patients, the system has become the normal way of checking in and the vast majority go directly to the screens without prompting. Even when patients turn up at the wrong clinic, the automated check-in quickly and easily redirects them to the correct clinic.

King’s Mill Hospital is now considering ways to deploy Savience Check-in at other specialist clinics that use a waiting list module for booked appointments and the Savience Call-out system which alerts patients visually and audibly when to proceed for their appointment.

Savience Check-in is currently being used in 15 hospitals, 750 doctors’ surgeries and 37 dentists’ practices throughout the UK.

Notes To Editors

About Savience

Savience Limited is a UK-based software development company specialising in cost-effective, automatic check-in systems in the health sector. Its web-based and touchscreen reception technologies enable rapid and stress-free check-in at public and private sector hospitals, doctors’ surgeries and dentists. Its check-in systems dramatically reduce queuing time for patients, free up staff resources, and can be integrated with established back office systems to provide a seamless patient pathway.
 
Savience clients include Kings Mill Hospital in Mansfield, Mount Vernon Hospital in Northwood, and Blackpool and Wyre NHS Foundation Trust. The company has recently appointed partners in other European countries.
  
For more details, see www.savience.com

Media Enquiries
Stephen Fleming at Palam Communications
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e sfleming@palam.co.uk
 
General Enquiries
Roger Everitt, Managing Director at Savience
t 01327 811872
e roger.everitt@savience.com