Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust estimates that the BlackBerry® solution with PaperIQ for the midwives will yield £220,000 in annual efficiency savings. Across a typical midwife's schedule, it has halved the time spent on administration, from 98 minutes to 48 minutes. "Everything is recorded and immediate. Midwives don't need to return to the hospital to input data. It's captured and transmitted in real time," explains Sargent. "We have freed up 'time to care' for midwives. The BlackBerry® solution with PaperIQ will pay for itself and begin generating savings in the first year. In the second and third years it's all savings."

With the reduced time for administration, the midwives are now able to provide more patient care within their schedules. The BlackBerry® solution with PaperIQ will also generate additional savings by protecting the Trust against the costs associated with any potential litigation or from failure to comply with government directives.

"By having patient records safely stored by the Trust, mothers are reassured that if their physical records booklet is mislaid or becomes damaged, their midwife can just request a new printed version of the notes which would contain full details of the check-ups and care given.

The records system chronologically orders every episode of care together with any notes that are taken in exactly the state they were recorded, which is useful if a case of litigation was brought against the Trust," added Sargent.