University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust sought an electronic observation system to further improve patient safety in the hospital and reduce mortality numbers following the procurement and implementation of an Electronic Patient Acuity Monitoring System (ePAMS). Goals include reduction of delayed, missed and inappropriate escalations; more effective observations; more accurate MEWS calculations; and increased ability to locate and stop deterioration for the sickest patients within the organisation. The Trust received an allocation of funds via the second round of the nursing technology initiative early in 2015 for procurement of the solution.
The Trust is now in the process of implementing MetaVision SafeTrackTM across all 1237 of its general ward Level 1 beds. Using mobile devices across 57 wards, 3,000 nurses and midwives will replace paper with MetaVision SafeTrack to capture observations. Automated Modified Early Warning Score calculations and escalations will notify the relevant clinical team to the need for intervention. The system will support the specific MEWS of the various hospital departments and can be adjusted for individual scores per patient. Smart alerts and nursing assessments for conditions such as sepsis, AKI and VTE will help identify possible patient deterioration.
The choice of MetaVision SafeTrack follows the hospital’s selection of the MetaVision® Patient Data Management System for their high acuity environments in November 2014. UHS is now implementing the solution across 100 anaesthesia and intensive care beds. The system is already live in the Surgical High Dependency unit and the Cardiac ICU, with the OR, GICU, Neuro ICU, PICU and NICU to follow shortly.
