University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust has announced plans to extend the use of its patient flow technology to Queen’s Hospital Burton.
The solution, ExtraMed Patient Flow, has been used at the trust’s Royal Derby Hospital, to provide staff with real-time visibility of a patient’s status, replacing the trust’s whiteboards.
In April 2021, health tech supplier Alcidion acquired the ExtraMed solution, to enhance its offering in this area. The solution has been in use at Royal Derby Hospital since 2013, with the system later extended to GPs, social care and community nursing in 2017. The expansion will now connect Queen’s Hospital Burton to the system, providing staff with digital tools to support patient flow management.
Gill Ogden, Director of Nursing at the trust, said: “Staff are really excited about this technology coming to Burton, where we expect immediate differences for discharge and overall patient flow, with lots more functionality we will explore over time.
“Clinical teams at Royal Derby Hospital have really valued having information at a glance, and improved communication that ExtraMed has supported. Nurses on wards in Burton will too be able to quickly see what is happening with the patient, and what needs to happen to prevent delays in patients going home. That’s the right thing for many reasons. We operate a very busy hospital, and we need to free up space for patients coming in.”
“Beyond staff on individual wards, bed managers can quickly identify available beds. And as a senior nurse, if I do a ward walk, I will look at ExtraMed to see which patients have a longer length of stay and ask colleagues about those patients, so I can understand why delays are happening – whether that’s because hospital is the right place for a complex patient, or if there are delays in the healthcare system that we can do something about.”
In October, HTN welcomed the company for a session as part of HTN Now, where the team discussed how digital solutions can support a digital integrated care system.
