-
80 year storage requirement for children in care, and 6 years
for adults -
Storage space released and access to information requests far
quicker
London October 26, 2010 – Kodak (NYSE:EK) today announced
that Nugent Care, a Merseyside-based charity operating care homes,
specialist schools and nurseries as well as providing support
services for vulnerable people, has installed File Stream’s
electronic document management software and a Kodak i1420 scanner
solution to radically improve how care records are managed in the
long term.
The new system will allow Nugent Care to easily meet exacting
statutory requirements[1] to store paper work about people cared
for, while improving access to information, enhancing security and
reducing the physical storage space associated with
filing. The technology was installed in June 2010 for
an outlay of just £5,500.
Young woman hugging old lady
Founded in the 1850s by Father James Nugent, a pioneer in child
welfare and social reform, Nugent Care today runs 7 adult care
homes, 2 special needs schools, 3 children’s homes, 2
nurseries, as well as providing adoption and day care
services. Employing 850 staff, the charity is headquartered
in Liverpool and looks after people primarily in the north west of
England[2].
Sue Halliday, support officer in Nugent Care’s performance
management unit (PMU), explains, “Current legislations means
records for children have to be kept for 80 years and 6 years for
adults. With so many people helped over the years, we were
simply running out of storage space in our establishments and an
appropriate solution had to be found.”
Using offsite physical storage was rejected because of the
expense, and a computer-based solution ultimately chosen.
Further to extensive research of available systems on the market,
File Stream’s EDMS version 4.2 was selected because it is
easy-to-use, competitively priced, and met Nugent Care’s
requirements today while offering a future expansion path if the
organisation requires it.
Gary Jones, File Stream’s marketing manager, says,
“Nugent Care wanted an EDMS so that care records can be
easily accessed by authorised personnel, revisions to any records
monitored and logged to help with auditing, and timers applied to
documents so that they automatically self destruct.”
Each care file contains a range of information such as
medication and healthcare records, correspondence with social
workers and local authorities, education reports and so on, and can
contain hundreds of pages depending on how long the individual has
been with the charity.
Nugent Care’s performance management unit – the
department responsible for the charity’s archive – uses
the system day-today, along with the purchasing department who has
just started storing supplier contracts in it.
Barbara Taylor, PMU team leader and the EDMS project head, says,
“We’ve wanted to install a EDMS solution for years but
most were just too expensive for a charity where service delivery
is the priority. The new File Stream and Kodak solution means
we can move forward efficiently and not be bogged down by the ever
growing issue of case file management.”
Given the range of document sizes and paper type, Nugent Care
selected a duplex Kodak i1420 low volume production scanner which
features SurePath paper feeding. This allows continuous scanning of
any document irrespective of length, condition or thickness – paper
can be processed from wafer thin 34 g/m2 to card 413 g/m2
thick.
Able to handle volumes up to 12,000 pages per day, the scanner
can handle 60 pages per minute at 200 dpi. Sue Halliday adds,
“Duplex scanning was a key requirement as a lot of our
documents are double-sided.”
Kodak’s 3D ultrasonic multi-feed detection technology
automatically senses and stops documents if pages stick together,
plus the 150 page hopper can be continuously fed even without the
scanner stopping. Perfect Page imaging technology ensures
quality image production first time, every time.
The charity is delighted with the system even though the
deployment is relatively new. The File Stream EDMS is set up
so that documents are indexed by establishment, name of person and
their date of birth.
Sue Halliday acknowledges there is much work ahead,
“We’d got to a stage where people were practically
screaming at us to get rid of records because there was no more
office space available. It will take us time to make a dent
in our paperwork, but we’ve now got the technology in place
to help us do this and free up space, while making accessing
information so much easier.”
This means that should people who have been in Nugent’s
care want to see their own records, responding to such enquiries
will be far easier for PMU staff who can review files
electronically rather than searching through filing cabinets and
archive boxes in multiple locations.
Neil Murphy, Kodak’s UK sales manager for document
imaging, says, ”The Nugent Care project is an interesting
example of how organisations can take control of their paper
mountains for a relatively modest investment. Files
Stream’s EDMS and our i1420 scanner delivers exactly what is
required – a cost effective and straight forward way to
manage and digitise paperwork so images are sharp and documents are
then easy to find.”
– Ends –
[1]Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities)regulations 2009, and Arrangements for Placement of Children
(General) Regulations 1999 [2]Areas including Birkdale, Bolton, St Helens, Liverpool,
Skelmersdale, Thornton, Warrington and Wigan
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Contacts:
Tom Herbst PR Limited
Tom Herbst
Director
Tel: +44 (0)207 274 9937
Mobile: +44 (0)7768 145571
E-Mail: tom@tomherbstpr.co.uk
File Stream Limited
Gary Jones
Marketing Manager
Tel: 0118 932 8900
E-Mail:
gary@filestreamsystems.co.uk
