A new Discharge to Assess (D2A) app designed to streamline the discharge process for patients in a healthcare setting, has been announced by Leonardo Tantari, chief digital information officer at NHS West Yorkshire ICB and Leeds City Council.
Described by Tantari as “mobile ready for front-line workers”, the app is currently being trialled by the Transfer of Care (TOC) hub in Leeds. A two-week pilot will see the app tested with a “live deployment pipeline” to allow feedback to be monitored and implemented as the trial continues.
“D2A is an approach that aims to streamline the discharge process for patients in a healthcare setting, typically in the context of hospital care. The main objective is to ensure that patients are discharged from the hospital as soon as they are medically stable and their ongoing care can be provided in a more suitable environment, such as their own home (Home First) or a community-based care setting.”
The app is said to simplify the discharge process by enabling staff at the TOC hub to “record information relating to a patients’ discharge and communicate this with the appropriate receiving service”. When a patients’ discharge has been delayed, the app enables progress to be viewed in real time by Adult Social Care or Community Care Bed Teams, hoping to prevent unnecessary calls to ward staff or delays with being able to access information.
On the app, Tantari added that it has benefits for patient assessment and reporting, with staff being able to view key information such as the length of time each person spends at each stage, number of failed discharges, reasons for delays and total time spent in the D2A process. It also has tools for the creation of personalised care plans; to facilitate better communication across healthcare providers; to aid with resource coordination for post-discharge care; and to improve remote monitoring and to provide reminders for medication or follow-up appointments.
Tantari also relays the plans for further roll-out of the D2A app and potential future development. “Following this initial launch, the next steps will see the pilot extended more widely to include pathway services which will be incorporated into the trial in the coming weeks. Beyond this its usefulness extends further still, as data collected by the app will sit with our office of data analytics team who will be able to join this information to the Leeds Data Model for further uses.”
Earlier this year, HTN interviewed Leonardo Tantari and Stephen Blackburn (Innovation Manager), where we discussed the Leeds Integrated Digital Service strategy and the future for digital within Leeds.
