Edward-Elmhurst Health physicians save two hours each shift with speech recognition software
Chicago-based Edward-Elmhurst Health has helped its providers save up to two hours during each shift by integrating Nuance’s cloud-based Dragon Medical One speech recognition platform.
In the months since Edward-Elmhurst deployed the Dragon Medical One software across three of its hospitals, the organization has saved hundreds of hours on documentation and 150 hours a month through the use of productivity tools like auto-text.
With the transition from paper into electronic health records, our organization was looking for a mechanism for providers to enter a note as quickly as they did with writing, according to John Lee, MD, chief medical information officer for Edward-Elmhurst Health.
“These providers still want to create a content-rich narrative without sounding robotic,” Lee said. And push buttons are even more cumbersome versus simply typing in the information.
“Generically speaking it just works,” he added. “The provider picks up the mic, starts speaking and words start appearing.”
Training for the platform is simplified as well. Lee explained, “To make the system work for you, training is really directed on using things like auto text to pull in text- based macros or commands to emulate keystrokes.”
Even before the advent of chronic medical records, a large preponderance of daily notes and narratives were largely template-driven, but the templates were stored in the provider’s head. Lee explained that if you look at an outline of an appointment, many were similar from one provider to the next.
Further, the speech recognition tool can be personalized to each provider to simplify the process, which frees up a lot of time, Lee continued.
“What it’s doing is creating a more synchronous communication between providers,” Lee said. “It basically separates the weed from the chaff in these enormous regurgitated notes being produced, to create a more robust narrative.”
The platform allows providers to document the “real, true nuggets of value,” which doesn’t lie within the data pulled in, according to Lee. Rather, it’s about the narrative created by providers to communicate with their peers.
Twitter: @JessieFDavis
Email the writer: jessica.davis@himssmedia.com
