Patient list sizes are increasing and GPs are offering a broader range of services. As the primary care team grows, it can be challenging to find space to accommodate everyone.
What can you do if you're bursting at the seams? Moving premises or extending your building are expensive options that take time.
Many practices have rooms full of Lloyd George notes. If you removed these paper notes from the practice, you'd create at least one new consulting room. You'd see the benefit straight away too. The extra floor space would be available practically overnight.
noteSpace is a secure off-site storage service that's been available for more than five years. The service frees up space, reduces workload and helps to improve patient safety.
We have millions of Lloyd George notes in secure storage. Practices already using noteSpace are making effective use of their extra space. Improvements include:
- Better facilities for patients, such as making access easier.
- Dedicate more space to waiting areas.
- Having more consulting rooms for new medical and healthcare services.
"We now have an additional three consulting rooms because we signed up to noteSpace."
Catherine Bateman, Lion Health Surgery
What is noteSpace Digital?
Now, there's a new service called noteSpace Digital. It builds on noteSpace by digitising your paper notes. We’ll collect your paper records, catalogue, store, digitise and insert them into the clinical system over an agreed period of time. Adding PDF copies of the notes to the patient records in your clinical system creates a seamless electronic medical record.
noteSpace Digital combines the benefits of noteSpace with instant access to full patient records.
Why do you need it?
GPs and practice staff refer to paper records more often than you might expect:
- Having immediate access to complete patient records can support appropriate decision-making during consultations. That can be especially important for your federated services when doctors see patients from other practices.
- When including information from the paper notes for Subject Access Requests (iGPR will can automatically include this information for you when you process SARs).
- You'll need the paper notes when patients transfer to a different practice.
It makes sense to have every detail from a patient's medical history in one place. Being able to see complete electronic records will save you time. You'll never have to hunt for a Lloyd George envelope again.
Electronic records are more secure than paper notes too. They're not susceptible to theft or damage by fire or flooding. To protect your patient records, noteSpace Digital adheres to the following security standards:
- We digitise paper records to meet BS10008:14 (Electronic Information Management).
- If you choose to destroy your paper notes, we meet BSEN15713 (Secure Destruction of Confidential Material).
- We meet CQC requirements for records management.
Deep storage or destruction?
After we have scanned your records, you can choose to put the paper notes into storage or destroy them. Both options are integral components of the noteSpace Digital service.
Some practices take comfort from knowing they can still access the physical notes. Over time, your confidence in the digitised records will mature, and you may decide you don't need the paper copies. At that point, we can securely destroy them for you in line with national security standards.
A step by step guide
The benefits of noteSpace Digital are wide-reaching and can have a significant impact on your practice. Here's a step by step description of how the service works:
- We'll visit your practice to survey your records.
- Soon after, we'll collect the Lloyd George and A4 envelopes. We can often complete the collection in a single day, which can be a Saturday to minimise disruption. We then catalogue and barcode your records.
- We move your paper notes to one of our secure storage facilities using a secure courier service.
- Each patient record is scanned into a searchable PDF file.
- We return the electronic copies to your practice.
- The next step is to attach the PDFs to your patient records. You can do this over time or let us do this for you with a bulk insert service.
- Your GPs will now be able to see electronic copies of the paper notes as part of the patient's record. The PDFs are searchable too.
- You choose whether to destroy the paper notes or not. We'll place them in deep storage if you decide to keep them, or we can securely destroy them for you. We retain the Lloyd George Envelopes either way as this is a legal requirement.
- If you prefer to keep the paper notes, you can ask us to return selected information to you at any time.
- We offer a follow-on service to capture and digitise new records when patients register at your practice.
How to get started
noteSpace Digital releases valuable floor space and provides instant access to electronic copies of your paper notes. You'll realise the benefit straight away too, so you won't have to wait to see a return on your investment. Get in touch if you have any questions or would like a quotation.