Digital transformation

FAMILY SUPPORT CONNECTS PATIENTS WITH LOVED ONES

Nurses at the Countess of Chester Hospital have developed a Family Support service to help patients stay in touch with loved ones.

With visiting restricted under national guidelines, hospital staff recognised how important it was for patients to have regular contact with their support networks. The service, which is managed by a team of nurses, acts as a bridge for patients to the outside world via emails and phone or video calls. “Family Support has been a lifeline for so many people,” Matron Paula Edwards said. “If anyone gets in touch with us, we will do whatever we can to help. We are very proud of the Family Support service and the comfort it has been able to provide to families at such a difficult time.”

The Family Support team liaises with families and colleagues around the hospital to identify patients who could benefit from the service, especially focusing on anyone unable to contact loved ones themselves.

Devices such as tablets and smartphones, some of which were purchased with donations to the Countess Charity via NHS Charities Together, are then made available before being deep cleaned and returned ready to be used again. Hospital visiting was suspended nationally, apart from a few exceptional circumstances, at the end of March and the Family Support team was created at the Countess a week later. Since April 2020 the team facilitated more than 18,000 communications with patients. These comments show how valued Family Support has been by those that have used it: • “The Family Support team at the Countess are amazing. They’ve just whipped up with an iPad to my mum’s ward and

Skyped me so she could see me and the kids. First time I’ve seen her face since the paramedics took her in eight days ago.

NHS heroes.”

• “You have all walked the extra mile for myself and my family and we all appreciate it so much. You are all stars.

Thank you.” • “Your help has definitely contributed to our mum’s progress. You went in with messages and a tablet when she had

Covid. You also kept us informed, which was so appreciated. You could not have done more. You have been professional, friendly and very supportive. Thank you.” Anyone who has a friend or family member at the Countess of Chester Hospital can contact the Family Support team by emailing coch.familysupportteam@nhs.net or calling 01244363941.

A nurse helps a patient speak to a loved one on the phone

epr+ set to launch this summer

This summer the Countess is embarking on one of its most important digital transformations in decades, with the launch of a new electronic patient record (epr+) system, known as ‘Connecting Care’, reflecting how the system will support how we work in the future. This will replace the Trust’s current 20-year-old system, which has served the Trust well but is now showing signs of being dated and not reflecting updated patient pathways. As part of the transition to the new system, 820,000 patient records will be migrated, as well as integration to 23 third party systems and around 150 devices across seven device types. This is an ambitious and complex programme of work. Healthcare professionals across all disciplines, including doctors, nurses, physios, pharmacists and many more, will use this new Connecting Care epr+ system to better monitor and manage patient care. Patients will receive the same high-quality and compassionate care they always have, but this new digital system will streamline admin processes by giving healthcare professionals access to real-time data about their patients. The existing electronic patient record system was first installed in 1999, with teams at the Countess constantly optimising it for their patients in the years since, but now the time is right to start fresh on a modern platform with new possibilities. Switching over will be a significant undertaking, which is why the Trust’s digital information teams working alongside staff across the Trust have been working hard behind the scenes on this for a long time, preparing training materials and support for healthcare colleagues to get the most out of epr+ straight away. Dr Darren Kilroy, Medical Director, said: “It

VIRTUAL CLINICS: HOW COVID-19 HAS CHANGED SERVICES

Switching meetings, get-togethers and appointments to virtual platforms has been something almost everybody has got used to this year.

From constantly hearing or saying: ‘you’re on mute’, to enjoying the novelty of seeing faces from other bubbles, it has simultaneously been both a strange substitute and a lifesaver.

For clinicians, utilising such technology became imperative to protect vulnerable patients. Reducing traffic in the hospital to only those who could not be seen or treated by other means was an immediate priority. As a result, the use of phone or video calls for outpatient appointments more than doubled between March and April last year. From February 2020 to January 2021, there were 82,694 virtual appointments, which is 29% of the total number of outpatients appointments at the Countess during that time. Most of these appointments took place on the Attend Anywhere platform, which was widely adopted across the NHS. A recent Trust survey of patients treated in this way showed that 95% were left satisfied their needs had been met, with 87% either very likely or likely to choose a video consultation again in future. Rheumatology is one of the areas to make most use of virtual clinics and it is also pioneering patient-initiated follow-ups at the Countess, which aim to reduce unnecessary attendances in hospital. The use of virtual clinics is something the Countess and the wider NHS was already looking at before COVID-19 for some patients, with the pandemic expediting those plans and there are plans to continue using Attend Anywhere. Dr Theresa Barnes, Consultant Rheumatologist, said: “We soon realised that for many patients in whom examination does not significantly add to the clinical decisions, telephone and video consultations are more than adequate, convenient for clinician and patient, quicker, more efficient and allow progress of care without putting patients at risk by bringing them out of their homes.

“There remains however a relatively large number of patients, who do require clinical examination to most efficiently progress their care and therefore there will be a significant ongoing need in the future to continue offering face-to-face clinical appointments.”

is really exciting for us to be launching epr+ later this year. This will give our clinicians the ability to view real-time data as it is taken from patients. As a former Emergency Department doctor, I know just how much of a difference that can make to patients and our teams. This system also opens up other new possibilities, including integrated records with GPs and other community colleagues, meaning patients only need to tell their story once. This is something that will be at the Countess for many years to come and so it is very exciting to see how this new technology will improve care, the way we work and the experiences of our patients.”