Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust saves more than 15,000 hours through digital documentation transformation

Saving over £350,000 in the initial period when introducing Lexacom to their workforce

For healthcare organisations, reducing administrative burdens remains one of the biggest opportunities to improve both patient care and the staff experience.

At Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust, a growing rollout of speech recognition technology is already delivering measurable results, with thousands of hours of staff time saved and further innovation planned through ambient AI and mobile documentation.

Serving around 765,000 people across Hull, the East Riding of Yorkshire, Whitby, Scarborough and Ryedale, and parts of Lincolnshire, Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust provides a wide range of community, mental health, primary care and specialist services. Supporting these services is a digital transformation programme focused on helping staff spend less time on administration and more time with patients. This programme includes the rollout of the Lexacom technology, which is led by Rory McPherson, Digital Project Manager.

Moving beyond traditional dictation

Before introducing Lexacom, the Trust’s documentation tools were limited. There were a small number of software licences and some dictation devices, but the organisation did not have any voice transcription or AI tools.

The introduction of Lexacom marked a significant shift, opening speech recognition technology to a much wider group of staff across the organisation. Today, Lexacom is used across a broad range of documentation tasks, with hundreds of staff across the Trust using it as part of their daily documentation workflows.

“It’s a real spread,” says Rory. “People are using it heavily for emails, rough notes and administrative work, but clinicians are also using it widely for documentation. It’s being used in so many different ways.”

Delivering measurable benefits

To understand the impact, Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust formally tracked benefits from roll out to date. Through user surveys and adoption data, the Trust has calculated that, so far, Lexacom has saved more than 15,000 hours of staff time, representing an estimated £350,000 in salaried capacity.

“These figures give us a good understanding of potential value and the capacity we’re creating. In turn, this allows our staff to get their admin done more efficiently and supports future digital transformation initiatives across the Trust”

Creating more time for patient care

While productivity gains are significant, Rory believes the most important benefit is the impact on patient care.

“The feedback we get is generally around spending less time on admin and more time with our patients.”

For clinicians working in busy services, reducing documentation time means more opportunity to focus on the people they support rather than the paperwork that follows. As adoption continues to grow, the Trust expects these benefits to become even more pronounced.

Simplicity drives adoption

One of the biggest challenges in any digital rollout is encouraging busy healthcare professionals to adopt new technology. For Rory, Lexacom’s simplicity has been a major factor in its success.

“We often recommend Lexacom to other Trusts for its simplicity,” he says. “With Lexacom, training is almost not needed as it’s a one-page guide. You click, you speak, and people understand how it works straight away.”

Although some staff were initially reluctant to move away from existing solutions, engagement has increased significantly.

“There was definitely some reluctance to change when we first rolled it out,” Rory admits. “But staff have come to realise they don’t have to spend as much time editing what they’ve dictated.”

The result has been overwhelmingly positive feedback from users.

“Most people like the simplicity. There are no barriers to entry. It’s one click, and you’re off.”

Looking ahead: ambient AI and mobile working

Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust is now exploring the next phase of its documentation strategy through ambient AI technology. An initial pilot group has already been using the technology, with additional users joining from across different clinical services. Rory believes some areas could see particularly strong benefits.

“Mental health assessments are one of the areas where ambient AI is especially useful because they often require detailed, lengthy write-ups after consultations.”

Lexacom’s new mobile app could also have a major impact on community services.

“I’m really excited, we have community staff who spend a large portion of their day travelling between patients’ homes. Having a simple way to capture conversations and generate documentation quickly has the potential to create huge time savings in this area.”

The Trust also sees an opportunity to improve continuity of care by helping clinicians complete documentation more efficiently while remaining focused on the patient interaction itself.

A partnership approach

Alongside the technology itself, Rory highlights the importance of having a responsive supplier relationship.

“We do genuinely recommend Lexacom because of the support we get. We’ve had experience with some companies where you can’t get hold of anybody and feedback disappears into a black hole. With Lexacom, we can see our feedback being listened to and we can see the improvements appearing in the product. That’s been really valuable.”

More value to come

With thousands of hours already saved, strong user adoption and new AI-powered capabilities being explored, Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust’s documentation journey is still in its early stages.

What began as a replacement for a small number of traditional dictation licences has evolved into a Trust-wide digital transformation programme, helping staff spend less time documenting and more time delivering care.

And for Rory, the potential is only just beginning.

“I think there’s still a lot more value to come.”

About Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust

Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust provides integrated health and social care services across Hull, the East Riding of Yorkshire, Whitby, Scarborough and Ryedale. Serving around 765,000 people, the trust delivers community health services, mental health care, learning disability services, primary care and specialist services for children and young people. The organisation employs approximately 3,600 staff across 79 sites and works closely with academic partners including Hull York Medical School and the University of Hull.

Download case study as PDF [142KB]