CSC wins whiteboard contract at Hull trust
Four-year deal sees deployment of electronic boards across 27 wards
CSC has won a four-year contract to deploy whiteboard technology in 27 wards at Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital.
The deal with Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust covers the introduction of e-Whiteboards based on technology developed by Cayder. These will replace traditional hand-written boards to give a clear and real-time view of patient flow and status.
The 1,150-bed trust has already trialled the technology on a rapid turnover elderly care ward, stroke unit and neurosciences unit, where it is used by multidisciplinary teams.
The investment is one element of a multimillion-pound programme of investment in information management and technology (IM&T) at the trust over the next five years. The project will also see the introduction of e-Observations, e-Prescribing, the development of a clinical portal, the digitisation of patient documentation, and a major investment in infrastructure to provide a new clinical-grade network and digital telephony throughout the trust.
“The trial phase was extremely successful in improving the flow of information and in turn the flow of patients across the organisation,” said Steve Jessop, nurse director for the medicine health group at the trust. “The system has a bi-directional interface with our patient administration system, so we can be certain that we have the latest information to ensure that we always know the location of a patient and the next steps in their care pathway.”
The boards will provide the trust with interactive touch-screen displays of ward activity, showing simple colour-coded indicators to facilitate improved ward management. This will enable healthcare professionals to check and update patient or bed status from any networked computer to provide reliable information, improving communication and enabling better patient care.
Nurses, therapists, clinicians and administrative staff have been involved in the design and deployment of the system to ensure it is tailored to the needs of each ward and that users are able to move patients with one touch of the screen.
“Staff no longer have to manually enter data into complex spreadsheets, which can be difficult and open to error,” Jessop said. “The e-Whiteboards take away the high-intensity pressure often associated with managing patient flow.
The new phase will install CSC’s e-Whiteboard solution trust wide across its acute assessment units and surgical and medical wards. It will continue to create greater operational efficiencies and cost savings for the trust, allowing hospital staff to spend more time with patients and leading to shorter stays and improved discharge processes.
Additionally, the boards display each patient as a cubicle or bedded area, which will give the trust the ability to report the status and number of isolation facilities across the trust. This will help the trust with the identification and management of isolation facilities to support infection control practices.
The contract with CSC also includes the configuration of the software to the trust’s specific needs and integration with the patient administration system.
