Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has launched a flu vaccinations reporting bot to free-up staff this winter.
Following flu-related absences intensifying in the Trust, it is now offering the flu vaccine to more than 14,000 employees. As part of its collaboration with robotic process automation (RPA) company Automation Anywhere, the bot will be used to track the number of staff being vaccinated.
Automation Anywhere said the bot had already saved 2,000 hours of administrative time compared to compiling manual reports. It added that current reporting processes are manual-intensive and there is an added pressure of reporting Covid-19 cases.
The technology has so far captured updates for more than 10,000 staff vaccinations across multiple clinical sites, saving nearly three months of administrative time.
“Right from the start, intelligent automation has helped us enhance staff engagement, free up valuable resources and has had a positive impact on the work we do for our staff and patients,” said Neil Picton, head of workforce engagement and information, Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
“The flu-reporting bot has helped to streamline a heavy administrative load for our Occupational Health team. It has also helped improve data accuracy and ensured valuable time is not diverted from supporting staff and patient care.”
The flu-reporting bot is an expansion of an intelligent automation programme implemented by the Trust to enhance workforce processes, improve employee morale and deliver more time to focus on critical patient care.
Furthermore, the Trust said it is currently reviewing plans to extend the technology to support local test and trace processes. As the first UK Covid-19 vaccinations begin to be delivered, it will also look at expanding the reports to cover coronavirus vaccinations.
