A new Health Foundation survey has highlighted the technologies that clinicians believe could offer the biggest time-saving opportunities within the NHS – with electronic health records and communication tools both ranking highly .
As healthcare professionals face enormous time constraints, the Spring 2024 budget highlighted how technology would be vital to achieving the ambitions of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan. The goal of Health Foundation survey The objective was to determine how clinical staff felt about the prospect of using technology to increase productivity and reduce time constraints.
The survey found that when presented with a list of technologies, more than half of respondents (51%) chose video conferencing for speaking to colleagues as their biggest time saver right now, followed by closely followed by electronic health records (50%) and digital messaging. communication tools with colleagues (29%).
With the numbers adjusted to show the results of those currently using technology, they still remain at the top of the choices with 60% (video conferencing), 57% (EHR), and 40% (digital messaging tools).
The Health Foundation notes that EHRs (and the access to data they enable) and tools used for interprofessional communication are both essential in helping the NHS move towards more coordinated and integrated care for patients.
However, it may not be as simple as implementing these new technologies and then waiting to see the benefits, with research suggesting there is still more to do. Interviews with clinicians in the same Health Foundation research revealed mixed results on the effectiveness of EHRs: while 56% acknowledged a time saving, 44% found none. They suggested that this could be due to the effectiveness of implementation in different contexts.
Furthermore, the interviews also highlighted significant concerns that EHRs in particular are not yet used effectively or have not yet fully realized their potential. The ability to access notes and test results from other providers was a concern, highlighting the challenge the NHS faces with interoperability and data sharing.
Focus forward
The Health Foundation also asked clinicians about the technologies they believed had the most potential to save time for the NHS over the next five years. Even if the results were less clear here, favorites still emerged. Clinical documentation tools (such as speech recognition software that converts speech to text) were selected by 31%, 26% opted for EHRs, and 23% chose software that analyzes images and results of tests.
Similar to the results for questions about what saves time now, when asked about potential time savings in the future, many of the top-ranked technologies were intended to support administrative tasks rather than clinical workload.
Perhaps due to the view that video conferencing and digital messaging tools have already reached their potential, there was much less optimism that these tools could save more time over the next five years . Video conferencing was selected by only 10% and digital messaging tools by only 7%.
With EHRs among the top three time-saving technologies now and over the next five years, research suggests that this technology can still deliver additional gains.
The other two top time-saving tools in the future were not yet widely used: 39% of respondents had used clinical documentation tools and only 13% said they had ever used image analysis software or test results.
Barriers to adoption
The research also explored the barriers clinicians face when effectively adopting these technologies, with respondents asked to identify up to five barriers they have encountered in the workplace.
More than half (55%) chose lack of IT support and expertise, with lack of funding to implement new technologies also selected by 53%. Other selected challenges included poor internet connectivity (41%), not having the right equipment (37%), difficulties with passwords, permissions or access (36%), and lack of time for staff to train (28%).
According to the Health Foundation report: “The importance of these types of reported barriers is perhaps not surprising, given that successful use of technology requires integrating it effectively into local contexts and have the appropriate skills and working methods to reap the benefits. »
Unlocking the potential of technology
The Health Foundation's research has highlighted key areas of action that need to be implemented if we are to unlock the potential time savings that technologies could bring to the NHS.
1 – Give greater priority to technologies that can help with administrative and operational tasks
2 – Recognize that many of the most immediate gains will come from optimizing and disseminating existing technologies.
3 – Support rigorous, real-world testing and evaluation of emerging technologies.
4 – Address the barriers staff face in effectively implementing and using technology on a daily basis, including improving the underlying infrastructure.
5 – Increase staff involvement in demand signaling and technology development and deployment.
Productivity gains will come not just from the technology, but from the ability of end users to implement it. As the research notes: “Because the change enabled by technology depends on the staff who use it, we argue that centering clinical perspectives and knowledge is essential to achieving coalition and leadership for change required to transform NHS care, now and in the future. »