Liverpool Heart hospital goes live with Silverlink bed management system

Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has gone live with Silverlink Software’s bed management system.

The new system allows beds to be managed via a touch screen, replacing whiteboards around the hospital.

Staff can create a graphical representation of their ward, allocating and moving patients between beds using a “drag and drop” system.

It can also be used to manage pending arrivals, booked beds and each beds cleaning status.

The system is fully integrated with the hospitals Silverlink PCS Patient Administration System (PAS) to provide real-time information on bed availability.

This has greatly reduced the amount of time nursing staff spend updating administrative records, the hospital said in a statement.

It’s also reduced the amount of time a patient has to wait to be admitted to a ward.

As well as allowing staff to update bed usage digitally, the system also helps ensure beds are allocated to patients with he greatest need and provides a colour-coded warning if it detects an imminent breach of a discharge date.

Carol Moss, systems manager at the hospital, said: “The introduction of touch screens to access the bed management system has greatly reduced the time it takes to transfer and discharge patients.

“Normally when we put in new technology, it takes some time to become accepted, however, this system has helped us deliver better results pretty much from day one.”

The implementation of the bed management system follows on from the introduction of a new A&E module, which enables browser-based access in the ward.

The next major investment will allow patients to book out-patient appointments using an app on their smart phone.

Tim Quainton, managing director of Silverink Software, said: “Our primary purpose is to help NHS Trusts deliver better care for less cost.

“We are looking forward to implementing it [the bed management system] at our 12 other PCS customers in the UK.”

In August 2018, Digital Health News reported on how a prospectus for the Health System Led Investment (HSLI) programme suggested that NHS England was looking into the possibility of funding to “support the development of system-wide eRostering and Bed Management Patient Flow exemplars”.