Clinical Corner

Rodney saw the stress that nurses were experiencing with paperwork during the strategy meeting and realised he could use his programming skills to lighten the load a little.

Called OCH Dictate, the mobile app allows staff to record brief voice notes immediately after a home or hospice visit. The app then converts these recordings into written text within seconds, giving clinicians a structured draft that can be reviewed and copied into VIP.

Using the SOAP (subjective, objective, assessment, plan) style assessment approach already familiar to our community team, the tool helps capture important information while it's still fresh, reducing the need to write up notes later from memory.

The app can be installed on OCH phones and accessed through a web browser, with staff signing in using their usual OCH Microsoft account. Security and privacy have been built into the design, with notes stored securely for a short period before being automatically deleted.

The benefits are already clear:

• Supporting real-time documentation

• Reducing the burden of paperwork

• Improving the timeliness and completeness of clinical records

• Promoting consistency in documentation across the team

• Better supporting the realities of community-based work

This is a great example of how simple, practical innovation can improve both staff experience and patient care. A big thank you to Rodney and the urban community team for piloting it.