Improving business processes and building relationships with the Newcastle Upon Tyne NHS Foundation Trust

The Newcastle Upon Tyne Foundation Trust is no stranger to innovation. For 23 years it has partnered with Datatron to improve business processes across its multiple sites. With our help, it digitised its medical records archive and implemented an e-forms solution. Meanwhile, other NHS organisations still lag behind in digital transformation, while the Trust continues to take innovative steps in streamlining processes and easing the burden of its staff.

Part of the Trust’s success is down to our expertise and experience. But we offer so much more than that.

We understand pain points and goals

The Newcastle Upon Tyne Foundation Trust is a teaching hospital and one of the largest providers of specialised medical services in England. As it‘s responsible for a lot of permanent and student staff on top of patients, it has a lot of paperwork to oversee. And, taking care of all this manually slowed processes down.

Take applications for study leave as an example. Before digitisation, administrative staff spent precious time chasing down the right personnel for sign-offs on forms. Then, they would have to wait to receive the form back before processing and passing it on to the HR team.

We listen carefully to the Trust’s challenges and business goals. This helps us identify and prioritise the business processes that need improvement. In the case of the applications for study leave, for instance, we ensured that the e-forms system routed applications to the correct person for authorisation, and routed them right back once approved. And, to streamline the process further, we built a workflow that creates an automatic employee case file in the HR system for each successful applicant.

We pay attention to detail

The Trust needed to free up valuable space for clinical care during the pandemic. As such, it decided to catalogue and transport over one million sets of patient notes to Datatrons secure records management facility. But, it had to do so securely and compliantly, enabling 24/7 access for authorised personnel all the while.

Datatron stepped in to work alongside the Trust’s staff, cataloguing and transporting over 62,000 boxes of patient notes. To put this into context, that’s 9,000 sets of notes every day over a period of four months.

We implemented BS10008 compliance best standards to ensure the security of the sensitive files. This allows authorised personnel to find documents easily. It also ensures that the documents are clear, legible, and legally admissible in court if necessary.

We adapt to client needs

The NHS must continually respond to changing situations. To effectively support them, so do we. Take our reactive and efficient technical support of the Trust as an example.

‘Ever since we’ve had Datatron as a contract, it’s been a lot simpler. You just email them, you just ask them questions, and they come back to you.’ - John Campbell, Data Centre Manager, Newcastle Upon Tyne NHS Foundation Trust

But our ability to adapt goes further than that.

We listen to what our clients want and work to meet their goals. The Trust’s HR system is a case in point. The Trust came to us with a proposal of how the system should work, and we made it happen. It’s this kind of attitude that allows our clients to approach us with new ideas and expand into new territories in their business.

‘They are subject matter experts. They know what they can do, but they also know how to support you. They’re one of the best companies to work with on a day-to-day basis.’ - John Campbell

A relationship you can rely on

Paper processes are unwieldy. But simply getting rid of paper isn’t the answer. To improve your business processes, you need a partner that understands them, and one you can rely on.

We offer that unwavering reliability. Even when the Trust went out for tender again in 2020, they came back to Datatron. They couldn’t get the same quality of service, or the same skilled staff, at the same cost.

‘I know my records are in safe hands. As a health records manager, that’s what you’re looking at - I’m quite passionate about the paper record. I know once it’s over to David and his team, it’s safe and it’s cared for.’ - Debbie Banks, Medical Records / Outpatients Services Manager

Datatron is especially proud of our relationship with the Newcastle Upon Tyne NHS Foundation Trust as it’s one of our most longstanding. But we’ve built lots of other great relationships over the years, too. If you’d like to read more about the relationships we’ve nurtured, as well as the soft and hard skills that have made them possible, check out our case studies.