Friday 19th July, 2013

A new white paper commissioned by V1, reveals how electronic document management can help the NHS reach its goal of delivering £20 billion in efficiency savings by 2015. Earlier this year Jeremy Hunt, Health Secretary, said that the NHS will be ‘paperless’ by 2018.

The white paper uncovers significant benefits that the NHS can expect to benefit from as a direct result of capturing, storing and working with documents electronically, these include;

Reduced cost: Document management solutions will reduce spend on stationary, printing, photocopying and administration costs associated with paper documents being created and circulated. In the area of invoicing alone, the move to managing related ‘paperwork’ electronically has been seen to contribute in excess of £100,000 in combined savings per year in mid-sized UK businesses.

Removal of the need for physical storage: Storing content digitally means that physical storage is no longer needed, releasing valuable floor space and eliminating the need for third-party archiving either.

Reduced manual intervention: By cutting the manual intervention associated with data entry and staff hunting for mislaid or misfiled documents, time can be put to better use, freeing up staff to carry out more valued added tasks.

Avoidance of late payment penalties: Efficient workflow prevents invoices going astray or bottlenecks building as payments wait for approval. Organisations can avoid late payment penalties and can benefit from potential early settlement discounts.

Traceability: A clear audit trail will help identify anomalies, budget breaches or rogue activity that will save on losses caused by human error or malpractice. UK National Fraud Authority’s latest Annual Fraud Indicator suggests that fraud costs organisations more than £20 billion each year.

Greg Ford, Managing Director of V1, says, “With the reality of the Nicholson challenge hitting home and with the strict efficiency saving targets that the NHS has to deliver, the pressure is on for the health service to streamline business processes. It is evident from the V1 white paper that electronic document management can play a fundamental part of their saving strategy.

At this stage the plans to go paperless within the next five years look optimistic, but with the spotlight of scrutiny falling on the NHS likely to continue in the run up to the elections in 2015 - it's going to be essential that they continue to make a thorough investigation into best practice, money saving policies and technology.