Belgian Hospital Turns to Speech Recognition to Convert Words to Clinical Data

AZ Sint-Jan Hospital in Brugge, Belgium, has completed a facility-wide implementation of Royal Philips Electronics’ industrial-grade speech recognition technology SpeechMagic.

As an integral part of the reporting solution MediSpeech by G2 Speech, SpeechMagic interfaces with the 900-bed hospital’s electronic health record (EHR) system to turn spoken information into clinical data. Physicians are provided with a reliable, accurate and timely source of patient information.

SpeechMagic identifies section headings in a dictated text to structure the data in the hospital-wide EHR system. This helps provide every department only with relevant information, which streamlines workflows and protects sensitive patient data. Reports are efficiently distributed to the general practitioner (GP) via the hospital’s extranet or Belgium’s dedicated virtual private network for healthcare organizations. As a result, waiting time for reports has been reduced by 60 percent.

"A proper letter delivered within a few days is better for the safety of the patient and for collaboration with the GP," says Dr. Van den Bruel, endocrinologist at AZ Sint-Jan Hospital.  "The visibility of the dictated text on my screen has increased the level of detail provided in the conclusion of my reports. I also receive fewer calls as GPs are provided with trustworthy information enabling them to quickly continue the treatment of their patients."

"I use speech recognition after every consultation and after every operation," adds Dr. William de Groote, head of orthopedic surgery and president of the Catholic University College of Brugge–Ostend. "We dictate directly into the eDossier of the patient. Our morning shift can find all information from the night shift in the eDossier, and vice versa, meaning we don’t have to search for x-rays and reports anymore."

Speech recognition-based transcription has proven twice as fast as a manual transcription from a digital recording. "Speech recognition makes our entire workflow faster, easier and adds significant value for the physicians. It enables us to provide clinicians and GPs with better information, faster," comments Simon Nowé, IT project manager at AZ Sint-Jan Hospital.

Philips’ industrial-grade documentation technology SpeechMagic is installed at more than 8,000 professional sites in 45 nations.