From Four Minutes to Five Seconds
How Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust is Exploring Faster Access to Information in Unplanned Care Through Visualisation Dashboards
Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust has demonstrated the potential of SystmOne visualisation dashboards to reduce the time taken to access key patient information from almost four minutes to just five seconds. The Unplanned Care Patient Dashboard has been piloted within one of the unplanned care services, with early findings showing significant improvements in information accessibility and workflow efficiency.
The Clinical Assessment Service supports around 13,000 patient interactions each month, and early findings suggest the dashboard could help clinicians spend less time searching for information and more time supporting patients. A time-and-motion study found the solution has the potential to release up to 625 staff hours every month.
By making better use of SystmOne’s visualisation functionality, the trust has explored how patient information can be presented more effectively to support unplanned care workflows.
Reducing time spent searching for information
In unplanned care settings, clinicians need quick access to accurate information to support safe and timely decision-making. However, staff often need to navigate multiple areas of the patient record to locate the information they need, creating delays, increasing cognitive load and reducing efficiency during patient interactions.
Recognising this challenge, the trust explored how SystmOne visualisation dashboards could bring key patient information together into a single view. The pilot aimed to reduce the time spent searching for information and enable clinicians to spend more time focusing on patient care.
Using Visualisation Dashboards to Support Faster Decision-Making
When looking for a solution, the trust needed a way to present information more effectively without introducing additional systems or creating new workflows. SystmOne’s visualisation functionality provided the ideal solution, enabling the team to configure a dashboard that surfaces relevant information in a clear, standardised format that aligns with unplanned care workflows.
Developed in partnership with clinical teams, the dashboard pilot was designed around real-world triage and assessment processes. Rather than navigating multiple areas of the record to build a complete picture of the patient, clinicians taking part in the pilot can access key information from a single dashboard, supporting faster assessments, more efficient decision-making and a smoother user experience.
Early evaluation of the pilot has shown that activities which previously took clinicians almost four minutes can be completed in as little as five seconds when using the dashboard.
In unplanned care settings, these time savings have the potential to help clinicians access information more quickly, supporting timely assessments and decision-making at the point of care.
The dashboard was piloted in February 2026 across the Clinical Assessment Service (CAS). Early feedback and evaluation have been positive, demonstrating the potential benefits of providing clinicians with quicker access to key patient information through a single, structured view. Based on the success of the pilot, there are hopes that the dashboard will be rolled out more widely across additional services in the future.
“SystmOne already held the information our teams needed, so the opportunity was to make that information easier to access. By using SystmOne’s visualisation functionality to bring key patient information together in a single view, we’ve significantly reduced the time spent searching records and helped clinicians access the information they need in seconds.”
Abbie Priestley
Community EPR Product Manager, Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust
The difference the pilot has made
From Minutes to Seconds
The dashboard enables clinicians to access the information they need within seconds, reducing delays and helping to streamline assessment and triage processes.
A clearer picture of the patient
Presenting information in a structured and consistent format gives clinicians a more complete understanding of the patient during triage and assessment, supporting more informed decision-making.
“Early findings from the pilot show that reducing information retrieval from almost four minutes to five seconds has the potential to make a significant difference to how our teams work. SystmOne has given us the tools to bring key patient information together into a single view, helping clinicians spend less time searching records and more time supporting patients.”
Supporting staff to focus on patients
Reducing the need to switch between multiple screens has simplified workflows and reduced cognitive load. Faster access to information also supports quicker responses and improved flow through urgent and unplanned care services.
Making every minute count
Even small-time savings at an individual level can translate into significant benefits at scale. Early findings suggest the dashboard could help release capacity back into frontline services by reducing the time spent locating information, enabling clinicians to spend more time delivering care.
The numbers behind the improvement
A time-and-motion study carried out following the implementation demonstrated the significant efficiency gains delivered by the dashboard.
“The dashboard doesn’t replace clinical judgement, it enhances it. By making critical patient information available in seconds rather than minutes, clinicians can spend more time caring for patients and less time navigating systems, improving both staff experience and patient outcomes.”
Brendan Lawlor
Clinical Service Lead for CAS, Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust
Key results
- 3 minutes and 45 seconds saved per interaction
- Up to 625 staff hours released every month
- Equivalent to more than 62 working days released each month
- 13,000 patient interactions supported every month
Building on success
Following a positive pilot stage, the dashboard is now being considered for wider deployment across additional services.
Future benefits are expected to include greater consistency and standardisation, further productivity gains, increased capacity release and continued support for wider priorities, including demand management and emergency department avoidance.
By reducing the time taken to access key patient information from almost four minutes to five seconds, Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust has demonstrated how SystmOne’s visualisation functionality can deliver meaningful improvements in efficiency, staff experience and patient care.