How Southern Health and Social Care Trust took action during the Covid-19 pandemic
We recently caught up with Dave Gormley, CIO at Southern Health and Social Care Trust who explained the project in more detail and what it means to the patients, staff and Trust, "Flow has been used extensively through the pandemic and is critical to both dynamic patient flow and forward planning. We have become very dependent on the real time information to allow us to optimise patient placement. We have a very limited number of side rooms and using the Flow information to show the infection status of all patients allowed us to make most efficient use of limited resources. We also relied on the information to monitor oxygen demand and those patients outside of ICU on higher respiratory support such as CPAP. We were able to extract this information from Flow to closely study which patients required this support, how long between admission and going on to respiratory support and length of time on respiratory support. This along with the regionally modelling work in terms of expected admissions allowed us to build a very accurate respiratory support resource model. This information was crucial to the planned respiratory divert that was put in place for the Southern Trust.
More recently we have also used the Flow information to build bed tracking search system allowing us to see the entire patient journey at a bed space level using integration with the data warehouse and business intelligence tools. This will allow us to better manage hospital outbreaks by having real-time information on patient contacts for those who test positive as an inpatient. This should enable us to identify contacts of positive patients and to investigate sources of outbreak.
Most importantly we were able to triangulate the information from Flow, ED systems, Labs and other data sources via business intelligence to provide real-time data to all levels of staff. Whilst we have come under pressure like never before, access to real time information along with accurate modelling allowed us to have a sense of control over our demands and resources. I have no doubt this help efficiency and staff well-being."
Joined up care means better care
Does your regional health system view each encounter with a patient as a single, unconnected ‘episode’ of care? At Servelec we believe that joined up care means better care, and we’ll work with you to deliver better outcomes for everyone. Our solution joins-up and coordinates care for your patients across your entire health economy, integrating systems and tracking the full patient journey from start to finish.
Find out how our Flow solution can help your hospital FlowMoving at speed in a post pandemic world
The development of Covid-19 indicators at speed meant that Southern Health and Social Care Trust could cope with the surge of admissions much better. The indicators also provided a view of the full bed estate and a visual understanding of Covid-19 cases in the hospital, safely knowing where Covid-19 positive and negative patients were.
Whilst there's a long way to go with Covid-19, the fast and efficient development means that we're technologically prepared to develop and deploy indicators to help fight back against any new waves or pandemics.
We're determined to it make it happen and overcome challenges to get things done, so you can make a real difference to more people.