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Embracing the Future: Ambient Dictation as an Emerging Technology in Health and Social Care 

Author:

Phillipa Winter

Health & Social Care

•  Oct 22, 2024

The landscape of health and social care is rapidly evolving, driven by technological innovations that promise to enhance both patient care and clinician efficiency. Among these advancements, ambient dictation stands out as a transformative solution, offering a 'hands-free, eyes-free' approach that ensures caregivers can maintain eye contact with patients, thereby enabling more personalised engagement and reducing administrative burdens. It is taking communication technology innovations to the next level. 

The Rise of Ambient Dictation 

Ambient dictation technology integrates seamlessly into healthcare processes, providing real-time voice solutions that streamline documentation and improve workflow efficiencies. This technology can enable the real-time recording of vital signs, anecdotal observations, and patient dialogues directly onto electronic platforms such as Electronic Patient Records and Electronic Observations, including supporting NEWS2. This not only enhances accuracy but also ensures that caregivers can focus more on patient interaction rather than being burdened by the paperwork needed to record all care provision. 

Addressing Evolving Patient Expectations 

In recent years, especially since the Covid pandemic, there has been a significant shift in patient expectations. Patients now demand more personalised and immediate care. Ambient dictation can help meet this demand by allowing clinicians to document their observations and interactions in real time without disrupting the flow of the conversation or moving away from the patient. This fosters a more engaging and trust-building environment for patient care. 

Combating Clinician Burnout and Workforce Shortages 

Clinician burnout is a pressing issue in the health and social care sector across the globe. The administrative workload is a key contributor to this problem. The exponential effort we know that happens daily within the NHS, where clinicians and care givers stay beyond their contracted hours to complete the documentation needed after a busy session or clinic, would be resolved by completing the documentation at the time of care by adopting ambient dictation. Care providers can significantly reduce the time spent on documentation, thereby alleviating some of the stress and burnout experienced by clinicians and care providers.  Additionally, with the ongoing workforce shortages, this technology helps optimise the available workforce by enhancing productivity by allowing them to focus on what they do best—providing care. 

Environmental and Operational Benefits 

Ambient dictation not only improves operational efficiencies but also offers environmental benefits. The reduction in paper usage and the streamlined workflows contribute to a decrease in the overall carbon footprint of care facilities. This aligns with the increasing emphasis on sustainability in public sector operations. 

Ensuring Patient Safety and Care 

Solutions designed with patient safety as a priority permit the logging of treatments, administration of medicines, and recording of patient interactions in real time, thereby ensuring accuracy and accountability. Furthermore, features such as the ability to upload photographs, for example wound management and tissue viability provide an additional layer of detail and monitoring, crucial for patient care and safety.  

Access to information in real time improves patient safety in the NHS by: 

  • Improving Patient Satisfaction: Patients appreciate timely care and reduced waiting times and direct face to face access to the care provider clinician. 
  • Reduced Administrative Tasks: Streamlining administrative tasks through innovative solutions frees up healthcare professionals' time, allowing them to concentrate on patient care. 
  • Faster Access to Information: Real-time access to patient data enables quicker decision-making and reduces the time spent searching for information. 
  • Patient Safety and Care: Solutions designed with patient safety as a priority permit the logging of treatments, administration of medicines, and recording of patient interactions in real-time, ensuring accuracy and accountability. 
  • Improved Individual Care: Data from patient health and adult social care records helps improve individual care, speed up diagnosis, plan local services, research new treatments, and save lives. 
  • Enhanced Care Communication: Integrated electronic health records (EHR) improve clinical outcomes through enhanced care communication. 
  • Efficient and Patient-Centered Care: Better use of data helps address key challenges facing the NHS, enabling more efficient and patient-centered care. 

Current Implementations and Future Prospects 

Significant strides are being made to develop and innovate current technologies within the health and care sector with the implementation of ambient dictation technology. For example, hospitals in the United States, such as the Mayo Clinic and Massachusetts General Hospital, are trialling this technology to improve their documentation processes and patient interactions. Similarly, in the United Kingdom, the National Health Service (NHS) is exploring the use of ambient dictation to enhance efficiency and reduce clinician burnout, improved efficiency, and patient safety measures at Imperial College. In Australia, several healthcare providers are piloting this technology to streamline their workflows and improve patient care. 

Next Steps for Healthcare Providers 

For healthcare providers looking to adopt ambient dictation, the journey begins with understanding their specific needs and the data they wish to capture. Engaging in sessions to assess these needs, followed by site visits and opportunity reviews, can pave the way for successful implementation. Introducing key clinical and business management stakeholders in the process can also facilitate this transition. This not only helps improve the quality and readability of the notes, but also allows for classification, making it quicker to identify the information in is classified form, providing workflows and improving communication and access to the right information at the right time.  

As a clinician in the 1990s, and throughout my own clinical practiced navigating through medical and departmental notes was a time-consuming task, often leading to the oversight of crucial medical history and past interventions or plans. The implementation of ambient dictation will alleviate this burden by ensuring that all documentation is accurately captured and appropriately filed for easy access. This innovation streamlines the current lengthy process associated with traditional dictation methods, where administrators transcribe the dictation, return it to the report writer for verification, and then manually upload the document as a letter or report into the records. 

Conclusion

The trajectory of care delivery has been forever altered by recent advancements, and the experiences, expectations, and needs of both patients, clinicians and care providers changed accordingly. Ambient dictation emerges as a promising solution to these evolving needs, offering a blend of technological innovation and practical benefits. By embracing this technology, healthcare providers can enhance patient care, improve clinician efficiency, and contribute to a more sustainable and effective healthcare system.  

To learn more about how ambient dictation can benefit your health and social care facility and how we work in partnership with suppliers of such Innovation, please contact CDW UK.  

 

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