University Hospitals Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
Automating common tasks across an acute trust
The trust successfully embedded a software application within the Microsoft Teams platform to share clinical information more easily and automate a number of common, clinical tasks. During the pandemic the tool was expanded so staff were able receive patient referrals on Microsoft Teams, subscribe to receive COVID-19 results for patients on their wards, and more easily contact members of other clinical teams, all eliminating the use of bleeps. This approach has allowed thousands of staff to effectively work both from home and on site by ensuring everyone can rapidly receive the clinical information they need.
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
Supporting the mental wellbeing of communities through technology
Along with local authorities across south London, the trust hosted the first virtual COVID-19 Preventing a Mental Health Crisis Summit, attended by 1,000 people. This event brought people together virtually, both within and outside the organisation, to look at what needed to be done to support local communities. As a result of the summit, the South London COVID-19 Preventing Mental-ill Health Taskforce has been established and is dedicated to the creation of a shared action plan for prevention due to psychological fallout from COVID-19. Through the taskforce, which has representation from statutory, community and experts by experience, SLaM is working together to identify need and address mental health vulnerabilities within their communities.
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Scaling the trust's electronic patient record during COVID-19
Cambridge University Hospitals has successfully scaled up its existing electronic patient record (EPR) system to support its response to COVID-19. The EPR now allows clinicians to track and monitor patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. The EPR’s analytical function can be used to build reports from this new data to help coordinate COVID-19 screenings, tests and trust resources. The data from the EPR is also underpinning a new COVID-19 scoring system that allows each new referral, case request and outpatient procedure to contain the patient’s priority, and risk and vulnerability score. These changes mean clinicians at Cambridge University Hospitals are able to access the trust’s EPR remotely, and provide detailed support to colleagues, whether on-site or off-site, 24-hours a day. Care and treatment for patients with chronic conditions can be maintained off site, safely and effectively.
Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust
Using video consultations for virtual ward rounds
The trust has successfully rolled out Attend Anywhere at scale to care homes across Hertfordshire, with clinicians working remotely from a central “hub”. Through clinical engagement, agile working and with the support of senior executives, the team at Hertfordshire Community implemented a system that meant clinicians could log in for entire ward rounds, rather than log in separately to each patient. A new electronic template was also devised to ensure data was captured in a robust way and a new contact measure of video patient consultation was established. These initiatives have meant deteriorating patients can be rapidly assessed to prevent unnecessary admissions to hospital.
North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust
Connecting patients to paramedics across the north east and avoiding unnecessary ambulance call outs
Staff at North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) are deploying Attend Anywhere in three key ways. Firstly, newly qualified paramedics are using the software to speak with specialist paramedics for clinician advice and reassurance while on scene with a patient who they think can be safely left at home without needing to travel to hospital. Using a video link allows staff to use visual clues in their clinical decision making. The tool is also being used with patients who, after going through the triage system (either NHS111 or 999), need to speak to a clinician. A secure link is sent via SMS or email to take the patient through to a video call link on their smart phone, computer or tablet. Finally, Attend Anywhere is also being used by other specialists, such as the NEAS Hazardous Area Response Team and Great North Air Ambulance, to see whether their services are required on scene, thus reserving their specialist skills for patients who need them most.
Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust
Supporting accurate, remote clinical-decision making for specialist care and enabling virtual visits for children and young people
During the pandemic Alder Hey purchased 1,250 new devices for staff to use at home. The rapid deployment of this technology meant the team could deploy both telemedicine and virtual visiting across the trust.
Telemedicine: the Neonatal Partnership, which brings together Liverpool Women’s Hospital and Alder Hey in clinically supporting neonates, was one of the high priority areas. Together with the trust’s innovation team, the digital team worked with InTouch health to implement a solution that enabled patients to be clearly viewed and assessed by clinicians without needing to be physically present.
Virtual visiting: To keep patients and staff as safe as possible, the hospital was forced to restrict on-site visiting of children and young people. Understandably, this was distressing for families and the digital team were asked whether there was anything it could do to help. The team built tablets installed with Skype, Whatsapp and Spotify and assigned free generic accounts for patients to use. This meant patients could still communicate and share music with their families, which significantly improved patient experience.
Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
Introducing video conferencing for mental health, community and sexual health patients/service users and staff
The trust worked with the software firm The Phoenix Partnership (TPP) to develop and deploy a patient portal for video consultations and patient engagement. A programme of training and development, built resources, and support and guidance material was shared with patients and staff on how to set up, use and engage with video conferencing (with consideration for those patients who are digitally excluded). As a result, 3,000 staff are now set up for remote working, and there has been a significant uptake of video conferencing in nursing and talking therapies. Group therapies have managed well online, and some services such as addictions have reported better attendance in group sessions, increased engagement and more positive outcomes from video consultations. Many patients say it has made access to clinical care easier, with staff valuing the improved home-work life balance.
Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust
Fast-tracking digital solutions across community services
A trust-wide COVID-19 digital mobilisation plan was developed via a virtual project team. The immediate priorities were to deliver training via Microsoft Teams and pilot AccuRx and Attend Anywhere virtual consultation software, while deploying vast numbers of laptops and VPN solutions, prioritising clinical and non-clinical staff working in essential services. Weekly video consultation implementation calls with service champions enabled the sharing of implementation experience, development of guides and troubleshooting, which in turn ensured a standardised approach to governance across multiple services. Regular ‘all staff’ virtual Q&A sessions provided a safe environment within which staff could engage with executive directors and the trust’s ICT team to share concerns, ideas, challenges and successes. Video and telephone consultations now account for 50% of all patient contacts, with extremely positive feedback from staff, service users and partners.