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Fluency Direct transforming patient documentation in primary care
Dec 18, 2023
Have you ever written a note to yourself, only to later realize you have no idea what you wrote because you can’t read your own writing?
Messy handwriting may not matter much when it comes to your weekly grocery list, but when it comes to patient care, inaccurate information can lead to miscommunications, delays in care, and—in some instances—serious errors.
To avoid this, many primary care physicians and clinicians have signed up to use Fluency Direct, a self-edit dictation software that is resulting in better and faster documentation.
“It’s making my life a lot easier,” said Dr. Rajan Govender, a physician at the Primary Health Care Clinic in Maple Creek. “My letters to specialists are so much faster now.”
Before the shift to speech recognition and voice command dictation software, patient care was documented in a variety of ways, including handwritten charting on paper, which was then typed into an Electronic Medical Record (EMR). However, hand-written notes can be difficult to read, and errors can occur during transfer to the EMR. As a result, that information was not always accessible in a timely manner.
Enter Fluency Direct
“Having a speech recognition program allows physicians to complete documentation ‘as they go.' It is much quicker and does not result in the physician getting behind with other patients as much as if the physician had to type all of the notes.”
The implementation of Fluency Direct self-edit dictation software began in medical imaging, laboratory pathology, and cancer care settings. In 2019, use of self-edit dictation software expanded into primary health care settings and private clinics.
Self-edit dictation allows a wide range of care providers, including physicians, dietitians, nurses, nurse practitioners, occupational therapists, paramedics, pharmacists, physiotherapists, and social workers, to dictate patient notes directly into their EMRs, verbally. This ensures the information is legible, comprehensive, and easily understood by all members of the care team.
“Fluency Direct has enabled me to produce more extensive and better quality notes for each patient’s visit, resulting in all-around better documentation to support our collaborative care practice,” said Dr. Winston Lok, a physician at Gardens Community Health Centre in Regina.
Additional benefits include a reduction of transcription costs for some clinics and elimination of transcription costs for others, optimized provider experiences and productivity in EMRs, reductions in patient documentation time, and the ability to speak in a natural, conversational tone to dictate text into any text field, while also improving voice-recognition software accuracy over time.
Between March 1, 2019 and March 31, 2023, a total of 201 physicians and clinicians working in primary care are actively documenting patient care information using Fluency Direct. Each year, this number of lives positively impacted grows as additional providers experience the benefits first-hand.
“Fluency Direct is an invaluable tool for physicians, and I would encourage any physician to consider adopting it into their practice,” said Dr. Marty Heroux, a physician at the Family Medicine Unit in Regina.
Learn more about dictation and transcription services. Physicians can sign up for a Fluency Direct license and access training by emailing selfedit.dictation@3sHealth.ca.