Interactive whiteboard gives Epsom and St Helier Hospitals real-time view of patients

6 November 2013

Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust is developing a monitoring system for its Emergency Department consisting of an electronic whiteboard and clinical portal to give the staff a live view of relevant information about the patients.

Clinicians at the Trust are developing the system with Harris Healthcare to provide an overview of the important information for each patient at a glance. The system will enable healthcare professionals to track patients more clearly and efficiently from admission to discharge, provide information from multiple hospital information systems and capture information at the point of care.

Dr Amir Hassan, emergency medicine consultant at Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust who has been heavily involved with the solution’s development said: “Emergency departments are under significant pressure to treat patients, many who are in a critical condition, as quickly and effectively as possible. The ED whiteboard and clinical portal will allow us to work effectively by integrating the systems that we already have into one single view therefore streamlining the clinician’s workflow and ensuring the best possible care for the patient.”

Dr Hassan added: “The ED whiteboard is about tracking patients through their pathway. It will enable us to click on a patient to arrange activity and check whether that has been followed up. For example, it will tell us their location, make us aware of clinical alerts and facilitate ordering and viewing of laboratory test results all through one interactive screen. Meanwhile, the portal will bring their relevant clinical information together and if technology is quick and easy then people will use it.”

Dr Chloe Johnston, paediatric consultant at the trust said that the ED whiteboard will ensure greater visibility of patients and their status within the department. It will also help to highlight patients on special registers and those that require consultant review while simultaneously recording information for reporting.

“On top of the clinical functionality, the solutions provide bespoke reporting capabilities so that the trust can capture additional information about the patients they treat for reporting and targets in order to assist the organisation in meeting mandatory targets set locally and by the government,” Dr Johnston said.

Dr Johnston added: “It is absolutely critical that IT projects have clinical leadership, as the little things that are easily overlooked can often make a huge difference to us and they way we care for our patients. We’ve been able to incorporate feedback from a huge range of stakeholders including requirements from our CCGs.

“The real test comes when clinicians finally use it for real, but being designed by clinicians for clinicians, we are confident that the system will be a success.”