A day in the life of… Mandy Crawford, Team Leader in health records at Lincoln County Hospital

Mandy has worked in the bustling health records department for 15 years and seen lots of changes in that time. The Lincoln library holds between 170,000 to 190,000 sets of patient health records, with 149 aisles consisting of 13,461 pigeon holes used for filing.

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Mandy has worked in the bustling health records department for 15 years and seen lots of changes in that time. The Lincoln library holds between 170,000 to 190,000 sets of patient health records, with 149 aisles consisting of 13,461 pigeon holes used for filing.

The team has to prep notes for more than 300 clinics a week, which is an average of 3,804 sets of hospital notes.

“I help to manage 67 members of staff on a day-to-day basis, to ensure the smooth running of the department so that we can provide the best possible service for our patients.

“My working day is usually 8am to 4.30pm, but the only typical bit about is that I make sure that all the staff are in, and everywhere is covered to start the day.

“After that we are faced with new challenges throughout the day, some days are better than others.

“We are pulling more notes than ever before, especially since we closed our library.  In July 2016 we received 2,339 boxes of notes back from clinics and elsewhere, yet over the past month we’ve had 3,897.

“Also, for three weeks in April, just from the on and off site emails from secretaries, we pulled 9,951 individual sets of notes.  It’s a massive task.

“The best thing about my job is when missing notes, either in the filing library, or another department are found so the patients can get their treatment, it’s a great feeling.

“I am passionate about my job and like to give an excellent service, but I also need the help and support for our department to achieve this.

“It’s also important to say thank you to the team for all the hard work they do. This doesn’t cost anything and it’s nice to be appreciated.

“Something that frustrates me is not having the resources and first class equipment that is needed to make the job a lot less stressful.  Also, people who don’t work in the department often don’t understand the pressures that we are all under.

“Health records are so important because this is where it all starts. From registering a patient on Medway, to making the notes up, to delivering them to the clinics or wards.

“Without the health records department the patients wouldn’t get seen.

“Everyone working in the NHS is a cog in a wheel, from band 1s up to the top. We all have a part to play in the patients’ hospital journeys and we are all equally important.

“When a new member of staff comes into the department they are sometimes nervous and worried that they might make a mistake, but all our staff are very helpful and friendly so they need not be worried.”