Dr Tuft & Partners runs three radiology practices in the Western Cape. As the business grew, it was becoming increasingly difficult to manage the many documents that were part of each patient's visit.

Typically these would include a GP referral letter, proof of medical aid, medical aid authorisation (when needed) as well as any other clinical information.

FirstCoast stepped in to provide a solution that would:

• Improve the efficiency of the way patient records were handled
• Speed up the process of capturing patient data
• Provide a centralised electronic repository of patient information
• Integrate with the practice's existing IT infrastructure that captures radiology information.

Firstly, Dr Tuft & Partners was set up with Avision auto feed document scanners, which enabled them to scan and save patient documentation quickly and efficiently. Then FirstCoast implemented the OpenText Alchemy document and content management solution.

Now when patients register at one of the practices, they will be allocated a unique patient number with seven barcodes. A sticker containing each barcode is applied to a specific document and scanned. Alchemy recognises the barcodes and indexes the documents accordingly in the file.

First Coast also integrated the radiology information system with Alchemy. Thus, the patient number from the barcode is matched with the radiology information system and additional fields, such as identity number, name, surname, treatment date and member information (in the case of dependants), are populated within the Alchemy database. Staff can now locate any part of these complete patient records instantly, using any search criteria.

Technical information:

The products that FirstCoast uses to streamline Dr Tuft & Partners' patient information are:

• Avision AV220C2 scanners: A4 auto document feeder desktop scanners which can handle up to 40 pages per minute.
• OpenText Alchemy: For creating a digital archive and searchable materials.

More information

For more information or to find out how FirstCoast can help your company manage patient or other customer documentation and records, please contact Grant Stott on +27 (0) 861 313 300.

Contact First Coast Technologies to see what we could do for you.