Medway NHS Foundation Trust implements Care Co-ordination Centre

Medway NHS Foundation Trust has signed a long-term contract with TeleTracking UK to deliver the trust’s new Care Co-ordination Centre, a centralised, holistic approach for bed management and patient flow.

Underpinned by TeleTracking’s operational electronic bed management platform, the centre will give a dedicated team of nursing professionals and bed placement specialists real-time visibility of bed status across Medway Maritime Hospital, the trust’s Gillingham-based hospital site that serves a population of more than 424,000 people across Kent and Medway.

Not only does this new way of working help to reduce waiting times, but it also means clinical staff have more time to care and spend with patients

With this real-time operational visibility, Medway expects to increase care access, care delivery, and manage patient flow more efficiently and effectively, supporting the delivery of outstanding patient care.

Over the next five months the trust will build a dedicated Care Co-ordination Centre powered by bed management and operational software that provides real-time visibility of the bed status across all departments and wards within Medway Maritime Hospital.

With visibility of available beds, the centre’s operational team can manage patient movement more effectively, ensuring patients are provided with the right care, in the right place, at the right time.

In addition, the trust will be able to balance anticipated demand with availability to maximise capacity.

Nick Sinclair, chief operating officer at the trust, said: “In its Delivery Plan for Recovering Urgent and Emergency Care Services, NHS England advocated the deployment of electronic bed management systems to support real-time decision making.

“From my experience, such systems are critical to the way in which we can deliver care today.

“The benefits that an operational platform and electronic bed management software provides extend to both patients and staff across the entire hospital – from improved bed turnaround time and reduced ED waiting times and length of stay, to improved bed capacity. 

“Not only does this new way of working help to reduce waiting times, but it also means clinical staff have more time to care and spend with patients.”

The events of the last few years have really shown us how much value frontline staff and patients can get from having a centralised, real-time view of the bed estate

In addition to providing real-time visibility of its beds, TeleTracking’s platform will allow Medway’s Care Co-ordination Centre staff and executives to analyse operations, use predictive models to anticipate downstream demand, co-ordinate patient placement, sensor-track resources and patients, and adjust resources to changing circumstances in real-time.

“The events of the last few years have really shown us how much value frontline staff and patients can get from having a centralised, real-time view of the bed estate,” said Neil Griffiths, managing director of TeleTracking UK.

“Traditional bed management processes are debilitating; frontline staff simply spend too much of their time chasing beds.

“Medway’s choice to implement a Care Co-ordination Centre, underpinned by robust operational and electronic bed management software, represents an integrated and sophisticated approach to operational excellence and capacity management.”