Pennine extends whiteboard use

The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is set to roll-out the second phase of its electronic whiteboards project in partnership with CSC.

The trust started implementing the boards late last year and has 72 wards live.

The initial phase of the implementation is due to be completed when the 45 wards in the trust’s day service unit and assessment areas are equipped with the boards.

he VisiWard technology takes information from the trust’s PatientCentre patient administration system and displays a patient’s name, age, room, bed, consultant’s name, admission date and expected date of discharge in real time for staff.

Phase two software was delivered to Pennine Acute by CSC at the end of last month and is set to include additional clinical information requested by doctors and nurses at the trust.

Testing on the new product has started to ensure the information is standardised across all wards.

Christine Walters, associate director of IM&T at Pennine Acute, said: “We are very keen that we have the tools in place that the staff want to use, so we are not dictating what’s provided.

"This is not an IT driven project but rather one that is being driven by the nursing community.”

The updated software will provide alerts for medications and electronic ordering for doctors.

Staff in other medical disciplines, such as physiotherapists and dieticians, have requested their own ‘RAG (red amber green) status’, which will indicate if a referral has not been picked up.

The system can also be accessed on trust desktop computers and has been introduced into the workstreams of bed managers, removing the requirement for them to conduct an hourly ‘ring-around’ to establish the location of patients and beds.

According to the trust, the system has reduced the time nurses spend on discharging patients by 30%.

Libby Woodcock, EPR clinical engagement lead at Pennine Acute, said the boards are also benefiting porters and catering staff.

“I think there were 35,000 meals wasted last year. A patient would complete the menu the day before, so meal they ordered would come up the following day and the patient could have been transferred or discharged.

"Six to eight porter visits a day, which take on average 15 minutes would be wasted,” she explained.

The third and final phase of the roll-out, which has been provisionally timetabled for next year, is intended to allow staff to use the touch-screens to update the PAS, and enable staff to drag and drop patients into a different bed or ward.

Read more about the technology projects underway at Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust in Insight.