Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust becomes National Pilot Site for Patient Flow Technology Project

LONDON (December 13, 2016) – The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust will become the first hospital in the country to trial the centralised Care Coordination Centre Model with the use of new tracking technology to more efficiently manage its beds, patients, staff and equipment.

The Model Hospital programme will partner with TeleTracking Technologies to install more than 4,000 infra-red sensors above hospital beds and doorways that read from small tracking devices on patients, staff and equipment. This will provide real time information for live ward electronic bed boards and a centralised Care Coordination Centre that supports staff in getting patients to the right beds more efficiently. The technology also automates workflows, certain domestic duties and discharge processes to allow NHS staff to spend more time with patients instead of on administrative tasks.

 

Work will begin on implementation in the North West hospital in January 2017. The Countess of Chester NHS Foundation Trust, in partnership with TeleTracking Technologies, will be the national learning site for NHS Improvement supporting Patient Flow Software Implementation as part of the National Elective Care Plan recommendations.

Chief Executive, Tony Chambers, at The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, states: “We’ve spent the last year delivering an efficiency programme based on the recommendations of Lord Carter, placing a greater emphasis on using transparency of data to inform decision-making that benefits patients. We see this as a flagship project in turning around our approach to patient flow and providing faster, safer care by increasing the responsiveness of our NHS workforce. With the visibility of this data it will put a stop to nurses wasting valuable time searching for equipment, and limit duplication of efforts in clinical admission staff repeatedly chasing updates on patient status to understand bed availability.”

Chambers continues: “The reality is that if we can reduce length of stay for each and every patient by just a few hours it gives us an additional 20 beds a day, which is much needed capacity delivered through more efficient working instead of spending.”

Doctor Julia Fishman MD, Vice President of Clinical Strategy at TeleTracking Technologies, adds: “We are delighted to be part of the framework supporting The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in their adoption of real-time tracking solutions, and to be involved in the national pilot that is revolutionising patient flow in this country. Going forward, NHS bodies will be able to procure TeleTracking’s solutions quickly and more cost-effectively to deliver high-quality, timely coordination of care across their facilities.”

Bernard Quinn, Director Improvement Programmes at NHS Improvement, states: “We are looking to a number of trusts to test out patient flow software and centralised co-ordination as an approach to optimising the capacity they have to treat patients across both emergency and elective pathways. We welcome The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in testing this approach, and we look forward to working with them as one of the national pilots.”

• The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is a district general hospital, which provides its services on the Countess of Chester Health Park, as well as in Ellesmere Port. The Trust has almost 4,000 staff and provides a range of medical services to more than 445,000 patients per year from Western Cheshire, Ellesmere Port, Neston and North Wales. It was rated as ‘good’ following inspection by the Care Quality Commission in 2016.

• The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is implementing an ambitious turnaround programme to be The Model Hospital, based on the recommendations of Lord Carter’s review of productivity and efficiency within the NHS.

• TeleTracking’s operational platform provides information required to efficiently and effectively manage patients through the admissions, placement and discharge processes. Through a combination of real-time data, automated workflows and contextual communication, TeleTracking’s solution allows staff to spend more time carrying out their core professional responsibilities by reducing the time spent on administrative tasks.

• TeleTracking was exclusively awarded the National Framework for Real-Time Healthcare Tracking and Patient Flow Systems by The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s Commercial Procurement Service, following an OJEU-compliant procurement process. The framework means no further lengthy and costly tendering processes and ensures that the information on the TeleTracking system, investment, and benefits are available for use by all NHS bodies and other public sector organisations in the UK. This greatly reduces the on-going administrative burden of repeating multiple procurement processes for the services included within the framework, as well as minimising the tender process from 18 months to between four and six weeks.

• NHS Improvement is establishing a National Working Group across Patient Flow Software Implementation Pilots who will share progress and benefits from these systems, and look to share best practices for fellow NHS Trusts that are looking to procure real-time healthcare and patient flow systems.

Contacts:

Gill Galt
Head of Communication & Engagement
The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
T: 01244 362 116

Beth Axon
JD Marketing
T: 020 8297 5388
betha@jdmarketing.co.uk