NDL trusts showcase their apps

Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has created a range of mobile apps for its community staff that it plans to make available to other NHS trusts via NDL’s new App Showcase.

NDL’s recently launched and free to use App Showcase is where the company’s customers can share their developments.

EHI reported in May last year that Blackpool had created two apps for mobile devices which were being trialled in the community. IM&T development manager Darren Kirmond told EHI these apps are now embedded in the community.

The trust is extending the use of its ‘Access to Caseloads Everywhere’, or ACE app, which lets staff see a list of their case loads and record activities. It also means staff can complete assessment forms on the mobile device which is fed into the trust’s patient administration system.

The apps will become part of the NHS showcase which already has 12 cross-sector apps for use by local authorities and NHS trusts, free of charge to NDL’s customers.

The showcase is designed so that trusts can share projects and developments with each other. Kirmond does not rule out that Blackpool will take advantage of other apps, as well as sharing the ones they have created.

NDL’s managing director Declan Grogan said the app showcase is about inspiring thought and conversations about what can be achieved using mobile apps, accelerating delivery and allowing customers in IT and business development to engage with their end users.

“Many of our customers already share their projects via our user group and forums and the App Showcase builds on this existing community,” he said.

“We understand from experience that every organisation works in a slightly different way so it’s vital IT teams have the flexibility to adapt technology to the way their staff actually work.”

Kirmond said that Blackpool also has several other mobile app projects in the pipeline, such as a care audit app for the trust’s clinical team that will replace paper processes.

“At the moment the trust audit team will go out and audit wards for the nursing care indicators, how the ward is performing in delivering patient care,” he said.

“We’ve also developed some nursing assessment tools for the tablets. While the clinician is in front of a patient, they can use Care in Motion or ACE and then seamlessly go into the nursing assessment tools, then back to the visit record. It’s all validated data that can be fed back into back office systems.”

Blackpool, which merged NHS Blackpool and NHS North Lancashire to achieve foundation trust status, is dealing with disparate ways of working and a trust that operates on different systems.

The mobile apps can integrate with any system and Kirmond said he wants to roll out mobile working to the entire trust.

“We’ve designed the whole mobile architecture to be scalable. In the remainder of the financial year we’re looking to scale the mobile solutions so we can release this access to the whole teaching hospital,” he said.