Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is transforming its urgent and emergency care by implementing a digital registration and triage tool to help deal with winter pressures, improve patient experience, and reduce waiting times.
Upon arriving at the emergency department, children’s emergency department, or urgent care centre, patients are prompted to register their details using screens, with a digital assessment tool collecting information on symptoms, existing health conditions, and personal details to match their health record. The tool then triages patients, directing them to the right part of the emergency medicine service for their care, with support on hand from care navigators if required.
Despite increases of one percent in daily attendances, the trust reports that the time spent by patients in the emergency department has fallen by “almost an hour on average”, with an 18 percent improvement compared with the same period in 2024. Also noted are reductions in the number of patients waiting longer than 12 hours in the emergency department, and in ambulance handover times, as well as improvement in the four-hour target for patients to be either admitted, transferred, or discharged.
A new coordination centre houses a dedicated team responsible for ensuring resources, staff, and facilities are used efficiently. A range of “easy-to-view” screens will shortly be installed to be linked with digital ward boards and the trust’s EPR, replacing traditional whiteboards and paper-based systems. These screens will share dashboards with real-time performance metrics covering bed occupancy, capacity, and ambulance times, to support the management of patient flow and bed allocation.
The trust plans to introduce new technology to support its virtual ward system, with the aim of treating more patients in their own homes. It also recently shared progress toward the aim of becoming “the most innovation-friendly trust in the country”, highlighting work around ambient AI, its digital front door, and eHospital.
Stephen Wallis, deputy medical director for operations at CUH, thanked staff for their hard work and commitment to the new changes, adding: “The new urgent care centre is fantastic and will make such a real difference to patients requiring treatment this winter. The changes to the ED and new digital assessment triage tool will help ensure timely, safe and high-quality care for our patients.”
Wider trend: Patient flow
Barts Health has shared how a real-time data dashboard, linked to its EPR, has made an impact on patient safety, patient flow, and delivery of care. The M-BRACE project, presents key information in a single place, including data relating to risk of falls, low blood sugar, and delays in assessment or transport, to support structured check-ins through the day. At 8-9am ward teams meet with support of the data, 10-12pm best practice reviews of every patient’s care take place, with check-ins 3-4pm, to review and track progress on discharges and identify any patients becoming unwell.
Thames Valley and Wessex Adult Secure Provider Collaborative has opened a preliminary market engagement exercise for a patient flow clinical information system to be used across its low and medium adult mental health services, known as Shaped for Me. The collaborative, a partnership of seven mental health service providers including NHS trusts and independent providers across five integrated care systems, is aiming to understand the market capability to deliver a digital platform to replace its current incumbent solution. It aims to fulfil the collaborative’s goals around coordinating care at scale, sharing resources and expertise, delivering efficiency and value, and to improve patient pathways.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GGC) has shared plans to develop its virtual hospital, with the aim of having 1000 virtual beds and remote monitoring in place by July 2026. An investment of £20 million has been made to support the delivery of the NHS Renewal Urgent and Unscheduled Care and Improving Flow Commission, with a further £2.56 million for Hospital @ Home, GGC revealed. Key focuses for improved patient flow include a flow navigation centre offering direct assessment and navigation to services such as eTriage.
