CUSTOMER STORY
Faster Filing, Without Giving Up Control
How Port Sorell Medical Centre Use HotDoc's Document Assistant
At Port Sorell Medical Centre, document filing used to take time, concentration and a working knowledge of medical terminology. Document Assistant has made the process faster, reduced the mental load on staff and made it easier for anyone on the team to step in — all while keeping the final review in their hands.
A busy practice serving every stage of life
Port Sorell Medical Centre is a bulk billing general practice in Shearwater, Tasmania, with 10 GPs working a mix of full-time and part-time hours. Office Manager Rose Lillico has been with the practice for 23 years. Practice Manager Noleen Davey joined in April 2023 and has also worked across reception, administration and management for most of her career. The practice has been using HotDoc for 9 years, since 2017.
The practice once largely served a retirement community but now includes more young families, alongside residents of the local nursing home. It’s clear how much both Rose and Noleen value their healthcare community:
“ I do love a lot of the patients. Some of them have been around for a long time. And we have a fabulous team which really helps.”
A shared task with a hidden mental load
Before Document Assistant, reception staff shared document processing alongside their other duties. As they rotated positions, they also rotated tasks such as entering faxes and emails and sending referrals. Each staff member scanned into their own folder to manage their workload.
Scanning, importing, checking the patient and allocating a document took at least about 1.5 minutes per document. At 400 documents per week on average, that’s roughly 10 hours per week of document sorting, and being able to label and file documents correctly requires a working knowledge of medical terminology.
As the practice became busier, there was talk of adding another staff member in the mornings but it wasn’t a viable solution. But the team knew that under pressure, mistakes could have serious consequences.
For example, if a document is filed in the wrong patient’s record, it could be sent out with a records request or seen by the patient during a consultation which are breach of privacy risks. Filed wrongly, a doctor might also discuss information that isn’t relevant to that patient or give them someone else’s result. Which is why accuracy was so important when it came to finding a solution.
When the trial with HotDoc became available, Noleen decided to see whether it would help. Rose was a good test at how the team might respond to Document Assistant. She’ll happily admit she doesn’t love change, but Document Assistant won her over.
“I love paperwork and I don't like change. However, I love it.”
Noleen also looked at another document sorting product during the trial. What made her hesitate was the idea of documents being processed without someone checking them first. Even if that setting could be changed, she still preferred having a person review them before import.
“Whilst AI is great, we're still the people involved who are responsible for what's going on.”
Automatic data extraction for maximum efficiency
The team now scans documents into one shared location rather than individual folders. Document Assistant reads the document and extracts the key details, including who it relates to and what type of document it is. The automatic labelling still surprises people. Recently, one of the GPs handed Rose a health plan to scan and started explaining what it was.
"I said to her, when you scan that in, it automatically works out what type of document it is. You don't even have to type it in. She was blown away by that."
Faster processing while staying in control
Automatic data extraction that’s accurate and editable has proved to be a massive efficiency gain for the practice. Noleen described the new process as significantly quicker with Document Assistant.
Currently, Port Sorell still imports approximately ~406 documents/week using HotDoc’s Document Assistant. Only now, it takes them much less time.
“It's much faster, but you still have control. That's what I like. It quickened the process a lot.”
Less mental load is as good as time saved
For Noleen, one of the biggest changes is not simply the time saved. She explained that staff can upload documents, quickly review the information, and import them in a way that’s less mentally demanding.
Easier for everyone to learn and onboard
The change has also made it easier to share the work across people with different levels of experience.
A junior staff member who works part-time initially completed a lot of the scanning while learning the systems.
This meant the team at times were answering questions about what a document should be called, and where it should be filed, and at times needing to amend this after it was imported. Which is only natural! However, when Document Assistant extracts that information automatically, it reduces the need for continuous coaching.
“They're still at school working only on weekends, so they didn't need to focus on all the jargon that we had to use. Document Assistant helped a lot with that process for them.”
It’s also helped with consistency in labelling documents across the team, while still allowing experienced staff to edit labels where they want more detail.
“The consistency of labeling things and we can edit areas where needed, when we're doing it.”
Preserving accountability with a human review
Rose and Noleen were both clear that they value having a person review documents before import. For Rose, that responsibility of oversight is part of why she’s comfortable adopting AI in her day-to-day work. That balance is also how she would describe the value to another practice considering it.
“Well, I mean, it's much faster, but you still have control. You can still amend things or change things.”
For Port Sorell, document filing is still part of the day. It just takes less time, less concentration and less specialist knowledge to get through it. And now they get through the day’s correspondence without additional pressures or stress.
“We do really love it. It's really made a difference. ”
Thank you to Noleen, Rose, and the team at Port Sorell Medical Centre for sharing their story!
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