Interactive whiteboard helps A&E traffic
Macclesfield Hospital has installed a specialised interactive
whiteboard to help streamline the management of A&E traffic and help
meet national targets to treat, discharge, transfer or admit patients
within four hours of arrival.
The system — ExtraMed’s A&E Whiteboard — combines an interactive
whiteboard from Promethean with ExtraMed’s advanced patient-tracking
software. It has helped Macclesfield to reduce the number of four-hour
‘breaches’ by providing a visual record of patient activity in real
time.
Paper-based patient flow methods had initially proved effective in
bringing the A&E department in line with the four-hour target. The
hospital felt, however, that a real-time IT system would assist in
sustaining the achievement by helping clinical staff focus on their
frontline duties.
Dr Mark Nicol, Macclesfield Hospital A&E consultant explained. “We
had been awarded funds for meeting the four-hour target, so wanted to
invest this back into improving our processes and freeing up clinician
time for patient care. We chose ExtraMed’s A&E Whiteboard as it appeared
to be the only system that could be provided on-site, in a short
timeframe, to deliver the help that was needed.”
Key to the A&E Whiteboard system is the tracking software. This
colour-codes patient waiting times to help clinical staff identify and
minimise the risk of breaches. This also helps with resource planning by
making it clear to co-ordinating staff whether there are excessive
patient numbers in each of the working locations: resuscitation, trolley
cubicle, ‘see and treat’ and main waiting areas.
Updating patient infor-mation on the system simply requires the entry
of a pin code. Not only does this provide secure data protection, it
also offers increased accountability in terms of audit trails. The
system records when an xray is requested for a patient, when they
return, as well as when a referral has been made to other specialties.
Changes can be made directly on the interactive whiteboard screen using
a cordless pen, or at any PC station.
The benefit of the system extends beyond the boundary of A&E due to
the tracking software. When patients arrive at the hospital they are
registered on the standard patient administration system (PAS), and
their details are automatically transferred to the A&E whiteboard. Their
movement through the A&E de-partment and on to other hospital ward areas
is then recorded at every stage.
Christine Scott, Operational Lead Nurse, comments: “In terms of
managing patient flow, implementing A&E Whiteboard is the best thing
we’ve done in years. Where previously it would have been a case of
walking around with a pen, paper and highlighter, now it’s all instantly
recorded in real time — and accessible to all.
“It’s exciting to think that we have a system that will also soon
capture all the information necessary for Payment By Results and allow
us to get away from the labour-intensive paper-based approach of
capturing activity.”
Source: bjhc&im October 2006
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