Sheffield Children’s goes live with real-time patient flow system

Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust has fitted out each of its inpatient wards with digital whiteboards as part of the implementation of a real-time patient flow system.

The solution will allow the trust to better manage patient journeys by delivering a real-time overview of capacity and needs in one consolidated view.

Each of the boards contains information such as infection control status, red to green status, expected discharge dates and various information such as respiratory support and IVs to aid clinical decision-making.

The patient flow system was developed in collaboration with System C, and is a key part of the company’s CareFlow integrated electronic patient record.

The main goal of the patient flow solution is to help improve clinical outcomes, reduce the length of hospital stays and deliver cost savings.

Already the trust is seeing the benefits of its use. Time-consuming calls between wards and the catering team for special feed requests have been eliminated. Under the streamlined digital process, staff update the whiteboard by 7am, so that a report can be generated by the special feeds kitchen. It is then checked by a dietician and all in time for the kitchen to meet its delivery deadlines.

In order to ensure high adoption rates across the wards, Sheffield Children’s worked closely with System C to create a live and dynamic environment to manage support and resolutions pre- and post-go-live.

Guy Lucchi, managing director of healthcare at Systems C, said: “Sheffield Children’s has made remarkable progress towards digitisation and the introduction of Patient Flow, and the digital whiteboards will be a valuable addition to the hospital’s capabilities to manage increasing demand.

“The system provides up-to-date visibility of exactly what is happening at the trust at any given time so management teams can see capacity, identify challenges and act accordingly.”

The Patient Flow system and digital whiteboards are the latest steps on Sheffield Children’s journey to digitise wards using System C’s integrated CareFlow EPR. Progress to date includes integrating admissions, clinical handovers, electronic observations, clinical noting, alerts and team communications.

Last September, System C signed a contract with Circle Health Group to deliver the CareFlow EPR.