Health Records team shines during governor visit

The hospital governors have visited the Health Records team to find out more about their work and how they support departments across our hospital, preparing all the patient care records that are needed each day.

Colleagues at the Health Records Library walk about 6 miles in an average day around 16 miles of shelving containing approximately 500,000 active case notes.

There are just 100 colleagues in the department and they are split between the Francis Centre in Bowthorpe and at the Collection Point at the main site.

“Our team is very organised and we have an excellent track record compared to other Trusts with hardly any records lost over many years,” said Sarah Egleton, Head of Health Records.

“As we look to the future with electronic paper records, it’s important that we maintain a robust service through that period of change.”

The hospital governors represent colleagues and patients, keeping us in touch with the local community and influencing service development.

“We were very impressed with the commitment of the team and the scale of the job they perform every day,” said Erica Betts, Lead Governor who represents patients in Breckland.

In the longer term, the Electronic Patient Record will replace paper files and the team has also been involved in a modernisation programme to scan existing records into MediViewer, an electronic document management system (EDMS). So far 370,000 files have been scanned from March 2021 to October this year.

Before the records are sent to the scanning bureau, they are sorted into the correct order and any duplicate material is removed.

Once the file is scanned, it becomes available for clinical colleagues to see on Mediviewer after 21 days.

When records are needed quickly, the out-of-hours Health Records team will locate the notes, which are tracked electronically on PAS, going to the last place they were logged.

This can involve visiting offices around the hospital, even at night, with a set of keys to the whole site.

The team also deals with patient requests to see their notes, meeting patients and helping them to find the information they need.

“We have a great team and we’re pleased to see everyone’s efforts recognised,” said Sarah.

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