Optimising workflows to reduce administrative burden by 50% and improve safety
- Healthcare
- eRS
- Optimising workflows
Executive summary
Administrative burden is one of the biggest hidden drains on healthcare capacity, and is a story which is mirrored across most sectors. When staff time is absorbed by manual data handling, it reduces productivity, increases risk and pulls people away from important, value-adding work.
This case study shows how automating routine administrative processes can deliver immediate efficiency gains, improve data accuracy and strengthen safety. The same principles apply across healthcare and other regulated environments where manual workflows create cost, delay and avoidable risk.
"The eRS integration has been transformative for our referral process, allowing us to reallocate resources and ensure accuracy in patient records. By implementing this open-source solution, we’ve not only increased efficiency but also set an example for others in the NHS to follow. It’s a perfect example of how collaboration and innovation can address complex challenges within healthcare.”
James Rawlinson, CIO of The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust
The problem we solved
Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust was seeing growing demand for triage and Advice and Guidance services. As referral volumes increased, so did the administrative effort required to manage them.
Referral documents arriving via the Electronic Referral Service had to be manually downloaded and entered into patient records. Large administrative teams were spending significant time on repetitive data entry, creating delays and increasing the risk of errors in patient records.
The process was inefficient and difficult to sustain. Administrative workload was rising, staff were tied up with low-value tasks, and the potential for inaccuracies posed a risk to patient safety. The trust needed a more reliable and automated way to manage referrals, without increasing operational complexity.
What we did
Answer Digital worked in close partnership with Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust to design and deliver an automated approach to referral management.
We collaborated with clinical, administrative and digital teams to understand how referrals were processed in practice and where manual effort and risk were concentrated. Together, we developed an integration that automatically extracts referral documents and data and delivers them directly into the trust’s electronic patient record or document management systems.
The solution was designed with security, accuracy and reuse in mind. It streamlines access to referral information while maintaining strong controls, and was built as an open-source component so it can be adopted by other NHS trusts without significant additional investment.
The long-term impact
The automated referral integration has delivered significant efficiency gains.
Manual workload associated with referral processing has been reduced by an estimated 25 to 40%, with an overnight reduction of around 50% in the effort required to manage referrals. Administrative staff previously focused on data entry have been able to reallocate time to higher-value work across the trust.
Automating data extraction has reduced the risk of human error, improving the accuracy of patient records and strengthening patient safety. The solution has also created a clear blueprint for wider NHS adoption, enabling other trusts using the same core systems to modernise their referral processes quickly and affordably.
The work demonstrates how targeted automation, delivered collaboratively, can unlock capacity, improve safety and deliver lasting value at scale.
How we can help reduce your admin burden
If your organisation is struggling with manual administrative processes that consume time and introduce risk, we can help.
Answer Digital works with NHS trusts and regulated organisations to identify where automation will have the greatest impact, design safe and reusable solutions, and deliver measurable reductions in burden while improving data quality and patient outcomes.