Boroughbury Medical Centre is a 48,000-patient practice in Peterborough, one of the largest in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB.
Nine weeks after going live with Anima Documents, they have filed more than 18,000 documents, automated letter allocation entirely, and reclaimed 20 hours a week that was before spent on document allocation alone.
The Challenge
Boroughbury handles a large, constant stream of clinical correspondence: hospital and discharge letters, A&E notifications, NHS 111 reports, screening results and more. On SystmOne, keeping pace meant one team member spending four hours a day, 20 hours a week, doing nothing but allocating documents to the right patient records.
Coding added further pressure. Finding the right codes across a high volume of varied letters was time-consuming, and the workload was higher than the staffing model could comfortably absorb. The practice wanted to work smarter rather than simply adding headcount.
What Boroughbury achieved with Anima
20 Hours a Week Reclaimed from Allocation Alone
Anima automatically allocates documents to the right patient and the right team, using the practice’s own routing rules. The dedicated allocation role is no longer needed, saving 20 hours a week - before counting the time saved on coding. That team member had asked in their appraisal to learn something new: they now run women’s health recalls and help to handle the 70 online registrations the practice receives each day. Automating workflows saves time and improves jobs.
“We’ve set up the rules and everything else, so those four hours a day, she can go off and do a different job completely. That’s 20 hours a week we’ve got back.”
Business Operations Manager, Boroughbury Medical Centre
Faster Coding and Higher Throughput
Anima suggests clinical codes, including QOF codes, with the supporting evidence from the letter, and a person still approves every document before it reaches the record. The practice filed 18,262 documents in nine weeks (350 in one of the first few days!), at a median of 25 seconds of hands-on time each. 96% arrive automatically and no manual uploading. One coder’s productivity has more than doubled.
“In four hours I used to be able to do about 100 letters. Now, I can do about 250.”
Lead Clinical Coder, Boroughbury Medical Centre
Reliable Tasking Across the Team
Anima’s workflows help Boroughbury to deliver their distributed team model, by routing each letter to the right group automatically: medication queries go to pharmacy technicians, follow-up tests go to GP assistants, and letters go to each coder at the level they are working at, filtering out what a GP does not need to see. In the first nine weeks, 94% of tasks were completed, at a median of 23 hours to close, and there is less dependency on specific individuals. Fewer letters reach a GP at all.
“If there’s a medication change, it wouldn’t go to the GP, it would go to the pharmacy technicians. We’re able to catch that information a lot faster.”
Business Operations Manager, Boroughbury Medical Centre
Cleaner Records and Faster Duplicate Handling
Anima flags likely duplicates and shows both documents side by side, so a coder can confirm and remove in one step, which has proved noticeably quicker for discharge letters in particular. For A&E letters, which the practice does not code from, Anima workflows strip the unneeded codes automatically, so the team moves through that high-volume category faster. Duplicates are caught and cleared in one step.
“It brings up both of the letters at the same time, so you can decide straight away whether it’s a duplicate, get rid of it and move on to the next.”
Lead Clinical Coder, Boroughbury Medical Centre
Are you ready to streamline your document workflow?
Anima can help your practice do what Boroughbury has done: cut administrative burden, build resilience, and give time back to your team, without adding headcount.