System which helps patients leave hospital on time wins national award
A system which helps patients who are well enough to leave hospital go home on time has earned Swansea Bay UHB’s Digital Services team a prestigious national award.
One of the biggest challenges facing the NHS is improving the flow of patients through hospital. Delays in discharging patients who are ready to leave mean patients who need acute care can’t always get the bed they need when they need it.
This often leads to incoming patients waiting in emergency departments, with ambulances queuing outside waiting to offload their patients as well.
Sometimes delays in discharging can be because patients are waiting for ongoing support, like care packages, before they can leave.
But out-dated practices within hospitals can also slow patient flows.
Swansea Bay’s Digital Team have developed a system called Signal, which supports patient journeys from hospital admission through to discharge. It provides a real-time picture of a ward's capacity and needs, including key information such as bed status, clinical information, outstanding tasks and discharge plans - all in one single view.
This makes it easier for staff to see at a glance important information to help them better plan the management of patients.
Signal’s positive impact was highlighted at the 18th annual MediWales Innovation Awards night in Cardiff recently, with the team behind Signal’s development and implementation picking up the Technology and Digital Impact Award (see pictures).
The accolade is the latest praise for Signal, which was among a number of digital improvements showcased by Swansea Bay University Health Board during a visit from the Welsh Assembly’s Health and Social Services Minister Eluned Morgan in October.
The system underwent additional refinement earlier this year, including integration with the Welsh Clinical Portal, which gives health care professionals across the country access to patient records.
The scale of Signal’s usage across services proved decisive in winning the award.
Helen Thomas, who is Swansea Bay’s head of digital planning for unscheduled care and cancer said: “It’s fantastic for the team to be recognised in this way, not least because as a service we probably aren’t very good at shouting about what we do.
“Signal covers a lot of disciplines and I think it is definitely the scale that stood out.
“It’s used by doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, pharmacy staff, mortuary staff and is also available to colleagues in primary and community care, including Social Services, who are able to receive and update referrals.
“The team thoroughly enjoyed the night at the awards ceremony and it was great to celebrate with colleagues from across NHS Wales and Welsh Government.
“In addition to the digital team, it was nice to have some of our clinical colleagues with us, given the development of Signal was a partnership between clinical and digital staff. They’re among the end users, after all, so to have them supporting us was really good.
“It was also nice to be presented with the award by Mike Emery, the Welsh Government’s Chief Digital and Innovations officer.”
Signal is used across Singleton, Morriston, Neath Port Talbot and Gorseinon hospital sites on all but a few wards and includes a local system available to update on PCs, laptops and mobile devices within the hospital setting and outside, with the use of VPN.
Matthew John, Director of Digital at Swansea Bay University Health Board, added: “Signal is an excellent example of clinicians and digital professionals working together to deliver digital solutions that enable better care for our patients, eliminating administrative delays and blockages.”
In addition to Signal, two other digital systems, developed in Swansea Bay before being rolled out across Wales are the Welsh Nursing Care Record (WNCR) and Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (EPMA). Both are helping to cut waiting times and save money at a time when both are more important than ever.
EPMA provides an electronic system for the prescribing and administering of medicines for patients in hospital.
In the Swansea Bay University Health Board area, based upon figures compiled up to October, it has:
- Saved more than 2000 hours of prescriber time each year from re-writing lost, missing or full medication charts at Neath Port Talbot, and a further 3,600 hours a year at Singleton Hospital.
- Reduced the time spent on individual drug rounds per nurse, per ward by 10 minutes at Neath Port Talbot and 6 minutes at Singleton.
- Saved 3,300 nursing hours per year searching for medication charts at Neath Port Talbot and 5,600 hours per year at Singleton.
- Significantly reduced errors associated with medicine prescribing and administration.
All other health boards and trusts will start implementing the system from 1st April.
The WNCR allows staff to record, share and access patient information electronically across wards, hospital sites and health board areas. It has also standardised information collected about adults in hospitals, eliminating variation across health boards.
All health boards and most hospitals across Wales are now using the electronic nursing records, with the remainder set to come on board by March.
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