Croydon University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust noticed that hospital staff needed more information about when patients might be at risk of a cardiac arrest and require early intervention.
In response to this, it introduced VitalPAC, a touch screen, handheld technology that can be used by nurses to input patient observations. VitalPAC automatically calculates early warning scores and so makes it easier to identify patients who are deteriorating.
As a result of the deployment, timely observations increased by 50%. Even among high-risk patients, it increased from 50% to 70%. The trust also saw cardiac arrest calls fall by 70%, which is equivalent to 120 fewer cardiac arrests a year. And the acute medical unit went for 100 days without a single cardiac arrest.
This case study from The Learning Clinic, explains the trust’s problem, its solution and the results.
