Digital solution set to play a key role in perioperative care
Xyla Elective Care and Ultramed join forces to launch digital preoperative assessment solution
With over six million patients on waiting lists for elective care, and one third of on-the-day cancellations related to patients not being clinically ready for treatment, NHS England’s plan to roll out earlier pre-operative assessment comes as a welcome relief.
Recent guidance by NHS England on tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care outlines the ambitions for providers to establish perioperative care co-ordination teams from April 2023 to assist patient health needs, pro-actively inform pre and post-operative care, and identify surgical risk factors.
Earlier pre-operative screening programmes are designed to identify patients with additional health needs who would benefit from extra support both before, and after, surgery with losing weight, stopping smoking, or with their diabetes management.
And to aid this roll out, and to support the surgery backlog, digital solutions are being provided for lower-risk patients who do not need to attend face-to-face pre-operative assessments.
Xyla Elective Care, a national provider of NHS-funded elective care services, has partnered with healthcare technology company, Ultramed, to use the market-leading digital preoperative assessment system, MyPreOp, which is supported by the NHS Innovation Accelerator for widespread NHS adoption.
The assessment involves patients completing health questionnaires from home, which nurses then review to determine whether the patient is ready for surgery, or whether they need further intervention.
MyPreOp has a portal for clinicians to review the patients’ questionnaires and manage their pathways.
And operational reports can be generated and reviewed easily to help reduce costs, increase capacity and significantly lower the numbers of on-the-day cancellations.
Claire Fisher, chief nurse at Xyla Elective Care, said: “We have seen great patient outcomes from our traditional preoperative assessment services and are excited to really enhance this with our digital solution delivered alongside Ultramed.
“We expect to see these results grow with further reduced clinical time, enhanced patient satisfaction, and a streamlined process for theatre bookings.
“Digital pre-operative assessment is the next stage in the expansion of our digital services, which all aim to support the NHS backlog and reduce waiting times while creating new capacity for NHS professionals to continue to see those patients who are in greater need of secondary care.”
The MyPreOp digital system enhances Xyla Elective Care’s traditional pre-operative assessment service which has a track record of successful use by NHS trusts, where it has helped free up nursing capacity and reduce the number of patient hospital visits.
MyPreOp is being implemented in 20 NHS Trusts by Xyla Elective Care in 2022.
Alan Sanders, co-Founder of Ultramed, said: “We are very excited to be partnering alongside Xyla Elective Care in delivering a premium service.
“Xyla Elective Care is a trusted, respected brand with a strong customer base and established track record. The adoption of MyPreOp is set to enhance this further; rapidly positioning itself as the leading digital pre-procedure assessment solution.”