Mental health trust improves patient flow and cuts paper
Patient management solution from Servelec provides end-to-end view of the patient journey at South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust
South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust has gone live with Servelec’s patient management solution, Flow.
The rapid implementation of Flow at the trust took just two months to complete, following the signing of the contract in March.
The product has replaced the trust’s existing patient management processes, which involved manually ringing around hospitals for updates on bed availability, handwritten notes on whiteboards, and then duplication of entry as the same notes needed to be entered into the Electronic Patient Record (EPR).
These multiple processes to record information can lead to a significant risk of mishandling and missing data.
Servelec’s patient flow solution digitises this entire process offering an end-to-end view of the patient journey.
And staff can directly enter information onto a digital touchscreen which instantly displays information about all patients in the hospital wards, including status and location.
The trust has taken a step towards improving bed management and patient journey processes and as a result will become a shining example to others on how digitising this process can improve lives for both staff and patients
The trust is an existing user of Servelec’s Rio EPR software, which integrates with Flow, and has a two-way interface that has significantly reduced dual input of data, supporting safer and more-efficient patient care.
Amallia Thomas, transformation project manager at the trust, said: “One of the main reasons we asked Servelec to install its Flow product was that there was no standardisation across the trust – we would do our ward handovers at the end of the shift, using multiple processes such as Microsoft Word, Excel, or even physical paper, which could be time consuming.
“Now we have Flow, we have an up-to-date view of every bed from every ward.
“We’re able to see how many beds are occupied, and which ones are free. We also have a full view of the patient journey, which greatly improves the patient experience.”
We’re able to see how many beds are occupied, and which ones are free. We also have a full view of the patient journey, which greatly improves the patient experience
Steve Wightman, managing director of healthcare at Servelec, adds: “The trust has taken a step towards improving bed management and patient journey processes and as a result will become a shining example to others on how digitising this process can improve lives for both staff and patients, especially in light of the current situation.
“We have now deployed our patient flow and bed management solution across all care settings including acute, community and mental health, which provides a great foundation for pan-region patient flow processes.”
With Flow now live, the trust is piloting the system on a number of wards before rolling it out across all wards by the end of the year.