East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust Employs Thoughtonomy Virtual Workers Alongside Human Teams to Improve Patient Experience and Boost Employee Satisfaction

Groundbreaking intelligent automation program highlights huge potential for realizing efficiency benefits rapidly across the NHS. 

LONDON, Oct. 8, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Working with Thoughtonomy, ESNEFT has cut the time taken to process the first stage of each GP referral from 15-20 minutes down to five minutes.  The program will eliminate the need for staff to spend more than 100 hours a week processing paperwork and instead ensures referrals are actioned 24/7. 

Video: https://vimeo.com/293105750

The intelligent automation program, which has been running since July is the first of its kind within the NHS and is initially being deployed in five specialist clinical units – Neurology, Cardiology, Urology, Nephrology and Haematology. Within the first three months, the Trust released more than 500 hours of medical secretaries' time and estimates it will also save £220,000 in associated direct costs by July 2019.

Darren Atkins, Deputy Director of ICT at ESNEFT, said: "We're delighted with the results we've realized so far and are hugely excited about the potential benefits of automating more processes across our Trust. When you look at the time and cost savings we've already banked within just one specific area of our operations, you start to get an idea of how intelligent automation can drive transformation on a huge scale within the NHS."

Using the Thoughtonomy Virtual Workforce® platform, three virtual workers at Ipswich Hospital actively monitor incoming referrals from the national GP Electronic Referral Service (eRS) in real-time, 24 hours a day. As soon as a referral is received, the virtual worker reads the content and extracts the reason for referral. It retrieves all relevant referral data and supporting clinical information such as scan and blood test results from disparate sources, before merging everything into a single pdf document. The virtual worker then uploads the document into the Trust's administrative systems using highly secure smart card technology and alerts the lead consultant that the referral is ready for review and grading.

Prior to the automation program, medical secretaries were responsible for processing referrals manually, downloading and printing documents, which they then scanned into a new document.  In a large Trust such as ESNEFT, which deals with around 2,000 referrals per week, this was a huge drain on medical secretaries' time.

According to the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), automation could save the NHS up to £12.5bn a year, the equivalent of 10% of its annual budget. In addition, it is estimated that a further £6bn could be saved through automation in social care. The recent Darzi Review of Health and Care called on healthcare bodies to 'embrace full automation to release time to care' as part of a 10 Point Plan to future-proof health and care services in the UK.

Terry Walby, CEO & Founder of Thoughtonomy, said: "Intelligent Automation has a massive role to play in streamlining time-consuming and inefficient processes across the NHS. By absorbing a wide range of time-intensive, repetitive tasks, we can unburden staff from administration and allow them, instead, to focus on delivering the excellent quality of care upon which we all rely. We're delighted to be working with forward-thinking NHS Trusts, such as ESNEFT, who are championing the use of AI and automation technology in order to deliver real benefits to hardworking frontline staff while reducing costs. This, in turn, translates into a better patient experience for all."

Frontline staff at ESNEFT have welcomed the new automated process. Dr Petr Pokorny, a Staff Grade Neurologist, said: "It allows for a more efficient, fluent flow of work, as it's easier to deal with five new referrals every morning rather than a huge pile of 35 referrals once a week. What's more, we now have our medical secretaries fully focused on the things that make a real difference to our staff and patients."

The new automated referral process supports ESNEFT's obligations under the Standard Contract for 2018/19 to process all referrals via the Electronic Referral Service (eRS), and to optimize its operations in line with the Paper Switch Off program, which comes into force on 1^st October.

Thoughtonomy enables organizations to enhance the productivity of their workforce through the intelligent automation and digitization of knowledge work. It uses AI and robotic process automation software to emulate how people work, allowing companies to add flexible resources to their team without disruption and rapid ROI.

About Thoughtonomy

Thoughtonomy is an intelligent automation technology company that has created an award-winning platform to helps companies of all sizes improve the productivity of their workforce. Combining the principles of cloud computing, software robotics and artificial intelligence in a single integrated platform, our customers enjoy frictionless deployment of a digital workforce that delivers fast, measurable results in an infinite number of roles.

Thoughtonomy was founded in the UK in 2013 and now works with more than 200 clients in 29 countries and has offices in London and Manchester in the UK, New York and Austin in the US.

Thoughtonomy's SaaS platform combines AI and RPA to supply companies with virtual workers that automate office work.

For further information, please see http://thoughtonomy.com/

Contacts:

Daniela Zuin, CMO, Thoughtonomy
Email: Daniela.zuin@thoughtonomy.com
Tel: +44-07799-113040

Contact: Tom Holland 
Email: tom.holland@thisistempo.co.uk