Inside the Endoscopy Workflow Redesign at MTW

At Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells (MTW), an NHS Trust serving southeast England, the endoscopy unit was struggling with a fragmented and inefficient patient scheduling process. Referrals arrived on paper, were printed, and stored in folders. Staff relied on Excel spreadsheets and entered patient details into three separate systems: the PAS (Patient Administration System), Theatreman, and a standalone database. Scheduling a single patient required as many as five separate steps.

This manual process consumed staff time, introduced the risk of errors, and made it difficult to gain real-time insight into where a patient was in their care journey. MTW needed a better way.

As part of an innovation partnership with TeleTracking, MTW became a pilot site to adapt Workflow IQ^®, TeleTracking’s workflow solution, for the NHS environment. The team chose to start with the endoscopy department, a relatively self-contained, high-throughput area that offered a good opportunity to demonstrate value quickly.

Kelly Calvert, a TeleTracking workflow consultant with experience in NHS operations, worked closely with the MTW endoscopy team and TeleTracking developers to design a more efficient system. Drawing on weekly working sessions and clinical feedback, the team adapted Workflow IQ to reflect local workflows and regulatory expectations.

Patient data now flows directly from the PAS into Workflow IQ. The Theatreman system was eliminated entirely. When patients arrive, reception staff assign them RFID badges and check them in using a simple drag-and-drop interface. From that point on, the system handles tracking automatically.

The new workflow looks like this:

• Patients arrive at reception and are assigned an RFID badge
• The badge enables real-time tracking via ceiling-mounted sensors
• Receptionists use Workflow IQ to see who’s arriving and check them in
• Nurses are alerted when patients are ready and can see their exact location
• Staff move patients through each stage of the visit — from reception to changing room, procedure, and recovery — without re-entering data
• A live scheduling board shows the status of each patient and flags delays

This streamlined process has delivered immediate benefits. Staff no longer need to input timestamps manually or consult whiteboards to track progress. Communication among clinical teams and with patients’ families has improved significantly. Within days of go-live, the team at Tunbridge Wells removed their physical whiteboard from recovery, declaring it obsolete.

Training was another key to success. Calvert ran daily training calls, provided hands-on support, and shared online video modules with staff. Everyone had access to the system before go-live, giving them time to build confidence. On launch day, both hospital sites had embedded support on the ground.

The result was a smooth transition. Staff found the system intuitive, and because the core logic reflects their actual workflow, adoption was quick. Within the first week, MTW was already seeing gains in efficiency and clarity.

Because the solution was built as a self-contained module, it can now be deployed in other endoscopy or procedural units without requiring full hospital-wide implementation. That flexibility makes it an attractive model for other NHS trusts looking to modernize how they manage patient flow without undergoing large-scale transformation all at once.

This project shows how targeted, well-supported digital change can deliver meaningful outcomes quickly, starting with the right scope, involving the right people, and solving problems that matter to frontline staff.