Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is utilising technology from Nervecentre to capture, store and share images of patients with pressure ulcers.
By using photography to confirm classification of a pressure ulcer wound, the trust said to HTN is has seen a reduction in the validation time – from three days to within 24 hours – and implementation of appropriate treatment.
The pilot was first implemented at The Northumbria hospital and was trialed on more than 100 patients before now being introduced to a further two clinical environments.
Over the past year almost 4,000 cases were received by the trust in relation to pressure ulcers, where previously they had used a manual process to classify and record assessments, on-going treatment and treatment evaluation of PU’s. There was a further requirement for the trust’s tissue viability team to visually validate all pressure area damage of category 2 or above, resulting in a small team spending long periods of time travelling between the trust’s hospital sites.
Julie Appleby, nurse specialist and training team lead, said: “We’re always looking at ways we can make the care we provide quicker, safer and more efficient. Technology is playing a huge part in allowing us to do this and we are very pleased with the results this project has achieved so far. Moving forward we are looking to roll this out in more wards and sites across our trust, which will help us improve the care we provide our patients and free up valuable time for our staff on the ward.”
“The image quality and ability to share information easily has led to a number or teams expressing a desire to use the technology for wound care. We will continue to train and provide assistance to the teams to improve image capture and categorisation of pressure damage moving forward to make sure the care we provide is as safe and efficient as it can be.”
