The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust has benefited from the introduction of electronic observations to wards and calculates the technology to save £22,828.63 per year.
It started the roll-on in 2018 and is now live across inpatient and outpatient wards digitally recording blood pressure, pulse and temperature.
The trust said “the benefits are clear; electronically gathered data is easily audited and, if errors in care do occur, clinicians can speedily generate a report to help assess what happened, rather than having to trawl through reams of paper records.”
“Furthermore, going digital has a significant cost saving; with £22,828.63 per year alone previously spent just on nursing assessment paper forms – money which can now be re-directed into other areas of patient care.”
Jennie Fisher, from the Trust’s Practice Development Team (PDT) “This is one of the biggest changes to ever come about in nursing practice.”
“Nurses have done things the same way historically, on paper and for these changes to be embraced in the way they have is simply fantastic.”
The trust is also digitising nursing assessements, to include the electronic administration of medicines, and the implementation of electronic fluid balance charts.
In 2020 Rotherham will see electronic blood glucose and hypoglycaemia assessments become digitalised and the introduction of an electronic food chart, used to monitor patients’ nutrition and hydration. SSKIN bundle, nursing admission and discharge processes are also planned to become digital within the first few months of 2020.
Mr Richard Slater, Consultant surgeon and the Trust’s Chief Clinical Information Officer “In terms of the digital landscape we have come on leaps and bounds in the last 18 months. This is down to the practice development and Informatics teams’ hard work.”
“We have seen a massive increase in digital user acceptance and I look forward to us realising the benefits of us becoming a fully digital Trust in the near future.”
