Case study

Space Saving Custom Keyboards

    Identity & Security Identity & Security

Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust takes adavantage of a single custom keyboard solution to save space and create a much more intuitive workflow in its Microbiology Laboratory

Increasing results entry speed, reduced input errors and releasing valuable bench space

The Challenge

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, is one of the UK’s largest and busiest NHS foundation trusts providing a full range of hospital and community services for people in Sheffield, as well as specialist care for patients from further afield. The Trust manages five of Yorkshire’s best known teaching hospitals including: Northern General Hospital, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Charles Clifford Dental Hospital, Weston Park Cancer Hospital and Jessop Wing Maternity Hospital.

Great demand on resources and the need for accuracy mean that the working environment is key to performance. Sheffield Teaching Hospitals were already using custom Access keyboards and had been doing so since 2003 demonstrating their ability to withstand years of non-stop front line use. Alongside these custom keyboards operators were also using standard off the shelf QWERTY keyboards.

The challenge was to make two become one, to create more desk space while improving workflow, reducing errors and driving efficiency.

 

 

The Desk Dilema

The Solution

Looking at the features operators have in their current arrangement which are integral to their work, it was clear that the two keyboards needed to be combined into a single device. Not only does this halve the space required, it makes for an intuitive workspace where the operator does not have to swap between keyboards. By removing the dual keyboard set-up, the workflow becomes much more streamlined and the potential break in concentration caused by swapping between input devices is completely irradicated.

Steve Davies, Laboratory Manager, Microbiology Laboratory, said: “Our work here is complex and anything that can reduce the workload and complexity is a valuable addition to the laboratory. The Access-IS keyboards have increased our results entry speed, reduced input errors and released valuable bench space, it’s a win for us on all counts”.

The Access IS range of custom programmable keyboards are rugged and reliable and suited for the most demanding frontline applications. They are constructed with high quality switches with rated life of over 50 million operations.

Access IS provides a configuration service to customise keyboards with special key top layouts, colours, legends and customer logo printing. The SoftProg32 Windows configuration software enables users to then design their own configurations.

Key positions can be programmed to have a single character or a string of characters. Adjacent keys may be combined to provide double or quad keys. Keys may also be disabled using a key switch lock-out cover.

The AKC110 - 2 keyboards become 1

The solution - AKC110 Keyboard

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