Docman: document management that just works

Originally published in GP magazine .

Written for GP magazine around 2007. This is the version I submitted - the published article may have been edited.

About six years ago, when we switched to EMIS, we were pleased they had their own scanning module that scanned images of letters into the record. The practice we merged with had also been scanning, using software independently developed by Paul Bromley that was ahead of its time. However, the EMIS solution won and stayed our main solution for about four years - but we couldn’t get rid of the paper. Although the document was attached to the patient’s record and you could see it when they arrived in a consultation, there wasn’t any way of reading your letters electronically. We still had trays full of letters, but about two years ago we jumped at the chance of installing Docman v7, which offered itself as a complete solution.

Until our hospital wises up we are stuck with a manual system, so we still have a scanner person and all letters are scanned into the system. They are then attached to a patient’s record and some extra information is added, such as which hospital and speciality. The clerk then tells the system which user the letter is for and sends it electronically, and we never have to see the paper.

There is an add-on called Intellisense that reads each letter and scans through it for information such as consultant, hospital, diagnosis and other relevant Read codes. It will then add this information to the filing info and can even add Read codes to the record. In theory it saves time, and demos I have seen always look impressive, but we have currently elected not to install this.

I can access my inbox at any time by clicking a button on a bar at the top of the screen or from the main menu. I can even access it from home through our VPN remote access. I can then read all the letters waiting for me and mark them for action as appropriate. The only niggle here is a minor bug that means the mouse wheel doesn’t work properly when viewing a letter, but I am assured they will fix this. I can stamp the document with a predefined stamp or just add an action. If the letter isn’t for me I can redirect it, or just send it to others who might be interested. We routinely send all letters, once read by a GP, to a Read coder to extract information.

Docman connects to EMIS through what is called the API, so it is well integrated. A menu sits at the top of the screen and whenever you have a patient selected, just click on a button and all letters for that patient are shown. You can even access all the previously stored EMIS attachments through it. As an accredited partner it works with GP2GP and other national projects. They have also just introduced a new reporting module to help track data for PBC purposes.

It isn’t all about patients, as it can act as an intranet. Any document can be sent round either to individuals in turn or broadcast to all, and what is nice is that it keeps an audit trail of who has seen something. So no one can claim they haven’t seen the health and safety policy. Users can see each other’s comments, and documents, once seen, can be retrieved at any time from the electronic equivalent of the filing cabinet drawers they are stored in. We keep minutes of meetings, important notices and guidelines. What is nice is that you can set up different filing cabinets with different access levels for more confidential documents. You can set up how many filing cabinets and drawers you like very easily.

You don’t have to scan everything. Files and Outlook attachments can be electronically saved into Docman, and the latest update can preview almost all common file types without having to open up extra software, including PDFs, Excel sheets and Word documents.

I would love to get the electronic document transfer (EDT) add-on working, whereby outside agencies - mainly hospitals but also Adastra-based out-of-hours - can send documents electronically to arrive in my inbox. This would miss out the need for scanning and allow us to redeploy this member of staff. It would hopefully also speed up the arrival of letters, missing out the mail. Lots of trusts near our area are using this system but our local trust isn’t yet. I am trying to persuade them. According to the case studies on the PCTI website there are savings to be made for them as well.

The best thing I can say about it is almost no one complains about it. It just works, with regular updates adding functionality. On PCTI’s website is a list of all the companies they work with - it isn’t just EMIS. I highly recommend it.