Recovering Urgent and Emergency Care: The Pressing Case for Electronic Bed Management in the UK

Three years ago, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (MTW) was managing bed capacity by using pen and paper, while nurses ran up and down several flights of stairs to check bed availability.

MTW is now repeatedly amongst the top-performing A&E departments in England, and has reduced its list of patients waiting more than 52-weeks for treatment from over 1,000 to 0 patients within 15 months.

Amongst many actions to manage capacity and staffing workflow pressures, MTW credits this significant improvement largely to the introduction of an Electronic Bed Management solution and Care Co-ordination Centre.  Electronic Bed Management solutions are specialised operational systems which automate workflows and centralise data on patient location and flow, supporting improved bed allocation and capacity management. Simply put, combining this technology with the right processes and existing operational teams ensures patients are discharged quickly, safely and effectively. 

Electronic Bed Management solutions free up bed capacity, create shared visibility for staff, and ensure beds are available in the most efficient and effective manner for patients.

Nurses now have the right information to make decisions on Trust capacity - providing clinical teams with more time to spend on patient care.

>> Download the full white paper