Customer stories
Devon practice reports a positive boost for workplace culture after switching to EMIS-X
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We’ve already been hearing so much positive feedback from our practices since EMIS-X® was rolled out earlier this year and Dr Matt Best, GP Partner, from Yelverton Surgery in Devon, had some really positive things to say about his experience so far. He was kind enough to find some time in his very busy schedule for a brief Q&A session, sharing his thoughts on the new features and functionality.
Can you tell us about your practice?
We're an 8,000 patient practice in rural west Devon covering half of Dartmoor and in a 3 practice PCN which covers west Devon and Plymouth. Each practice in the PCN uses EMIS Web and EMIS [now Optum] is our preferred supplier for our clinical system. We really enjoy using EMIS-X, we like the product, and we also like the ethos of the company behind it.
When did you first hear about EMIS-X?
I attended the EMIS-X Roadshow event in 2023, and I was lucky enough to get a demo of EMIS-X and I was really excited. It was exactly what we were looking for in order to move forward and still maintain our working practices. Workflow and efficiency is really key to our business model and I could immediately see the benefits it would bring and the functionality seemed so straightforward.
We’ve now completely transitioned all of our internal messaging to EMIS-X, it's really helping us improve communication across our team.
How have you found things, so far?
Getting access to EMIS-X has been fantastic, it’s really useful and I use it on a daily basis. As soon as EMIS Web is open, EMIS-X is open, every single morning, we feel we can absolutely rely on it day after day in our practice.
What are the main advantages of EMIS-X?
It’s all about having the confidence that we now have a product that has multi-screen functionality, we can access data quickly within one package, without having to open multiple instances of EMIS Web. The multi-screen functionality also benefits patient experience too. It has allowed us to interact with patients more during consultations, enabling me to turn a screen to a patient when referring to a specific letter or document, for example, but then have documents and notes with more sensitive information on the screen facing me. The team also really like being able to look at prescriptions lists and medications whilst amending the record or looking at letters and other documents at the same time.
How has using EMIS-X affected the way you work?
Since the arrival of EMIS-X we are keen to move away from using any other document viewing software and have one integrated system. EMIS-X gives us just what we need. It’s great to have everything in one package, all in one place. Before EMIS-X, colleagues would be working with a lot of windows open and flicking backwards and forwards, which adds to the cognitive load and can be risky. Now we can access the data quickly, easily, and safely, and staff have had nothing but good things to say about it.
Have you enjoyed the Staff Instant Messenger feature of EMIS-X?
It has really brought the team interactions up a level; from informal day-to-day chats about coffee and cake and staff birthdays, to more patient-focused chats about workflows and administration matters. It’s also good to be able to see who is online at that time and getting little notifications in the corner of the screen is useful too. There are more actual conversations happening, it’s far less intrusive, the notifications don’t disrupt the workflow and stop you mid-task. It really is facilitating how we work and helping us improve communication across our team.
The thing about working with EMIS [now Optum] technology is that you know everything’s been tried and tested before release and it’s bulletproof when it comes out.
Has it been easy to get your team to adopt the new functionality?
Getting the team onboard wasn’t too challenging at all, after they’d seen the many benefits and how straightforward EMIS-X is. Moving away from the old screen messenger did take a little bit of patience and planning, but once the majority of the conversations were taking place on the new platform, the switch-over gathered much more momentum.
What future EMIS-X enhancements are you looking forward to?
I’m really looking forward to further updates, especially EMIS-X in a browser, which will be helpful for those who are working remotely. Members of staff will then only be limited by the speed of their internet connection and won’t have to download and run a big desktop app that needs a lot of memory. I think it’s definitely a positive step towards the future and I’m looking forward to seeing that. In conclusion I'd say that technology really does play such a central role in all of our success and that’s why I’m pleased that we’re embracing the change and moving towards a slicker way of working.