Client Q&A: Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust

TeleTracking UK’s Client Optimization Lead, Dan Wadsworth, recently caught up with three of our clients to capture their thoughts and feedback on the use of TeleTracking in their trusts.

Welcome, therefore, to the first TeleTracking UK client Q&A blog, with Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (MTW). Read on and enjoy!

For this client Q&A, we spoke with Luke Climpson, General Manager Operational Flow; Elisa Cole, Flow Matron; Stephanie Ansley, Clinical Lead Occupational Therapist; and Louisa Wills, User Experience and Training Lead for Operational Flow.

Dan Wadsworth: How long have you been using TeleTracking in your role?

Elisa Cole: MTW first started using TeleTracking about three years ago in its infancy. Obviously, it’s evolved significantly since then and we’ve seen a lot of changes, but it’s been three years overall.

Steph Ansley: For us, we were loosely using TeleTracking since it came onto the wards. Initially, it was perceived as another system that we needed to input to on top of our usual processes. However, with change training and following a small ward pilot, we have now been using the technology in full swing for a few months, and it’s completely changed our processes as a live case management tool.

Wadsworth: What three words would you use to describe TeleTracking?

Luke Climpson: For me, these are more than just words, they’re principles we feel sit at the heart of the solution – and they are dynamic, information rich, and good visual design principles. Dynamic because the system is very dynamic. You can change things; it can adapt to the environments and we know that across the hospitals where it’s been implemented it’s extremely information rich and visually easy to read.

Ansley: Adaptable, user-friendly and efficient.

Wadsworth: Can you share a recent success you’ve had using TeleTracking?

Ansley: We recently launched a ‘bin the books’ campaign to fully embrace adoption of TeleTracking. This meant getting rid of our ward books, which formed our previous caseload management process; in my team’s case this was seven books in which the team would write daily – it was terribly 1990s! And on average, every Monday we would spend 45 minutes per ward to write out the ward book – that’s over five hours every week spent on little more than drawing lines!

We worked with TeleTracking to develop a console, with therapy specific and priority columns and a handover, free-text column for the teams to use. This has brought the admin time down to three minutes per ward, which is a huge time saving – and far more accountable. It’s time that we can now dedicate to staff training and education, and more time back to care for our patients.

Wadsworth: What advice would you give to another organization about to embark on their TeleTracking journey?

Climpson: Don’t underestimate the culture change associated with the implementation of a bed management system. The system is fantastic. It works really well, but it is a huge culture change in the way that the operational teams, the nursing teams, all work together. We are still going through some elements of that cultural change, three years later. So, not to be underestimated.

Ansley: Don’t be afraid to ask to adapt the system. You will inevitably get resistance because people think, “oh, that’s not going to work,” but because we were able to work with Louisa and her team, we could adapt the system to something that was really fit for our very specific purpose.

Wadsworth: How has your day-to-day changed since using TeleTracking?

Louisa Wills: The main change has been binning the books. The consequences are far more confidence in handing over a caseload. We can generate a patient list really quickly, and the transition is really smooth. The team has been hugely positive of the change and everyone values being able to spend more time caring for patients and focusing on staff training and development, rather than time wasted on admin.

Cole: From a clinical site manager point of view the difference is unrecognizable. We would walk around with paper from ward to ward. We were never live by the time we went from one ward to the next; everything had changed. We lost a huge amount of bed hours. Physically, the work was really demanding and we definitely didn’t get the best out of our beds. We didn’t have the visibility of who was in which bed and when. The difference is unrecognizable.

Wadsworth: What accomplishment are you and the team most proud of?

Ansley: Our main asset is the care and compassion that we provide to our patients. With TeleTracking, we have increased our clinical time so that we can provide that high standard of good care. We can make people who feel very vulnerable feel that little bit safer.

Climpson: It’s got to be winning the HSJ Award. Recently we won Healthtech Partner of the Year. I think that’s the biggest accomplishment and it just goes to show how fantastic we’ve been working together and how much we’ve achieved.

Read more about TeleTracking’s work with MTW.