Hampshire Hospitals to launch digital pre-op platform across three sites

Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust plans to launch a new digital platform to manage pre-operative assessments across its three hospital sites.

The trust will rollout Synopsis Home and Synopsis iQ at the Andover War Memorial Hospital, Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital and Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester in the coming months.

The Synopsis iQ system will allow staff at the trust to manage each patient’s elective surgery pathway, including pre-operative health questionnaires and post-operative outcomes, from a central digital dashboard.

Using Synopsis Home, the trust will also be able to ask patients to complete their pre-operative health questionnaires digitally at home, or out of hospital, where appropriate.

The answers will then be automatically risk stratified to provide triage teams with data to decide the most appropriate pathway for each patient.

The platform will integrate with the trust’s DXC Technology patient administration system, in-house electronic patient record and theatre scheduling systems, with data made immediately available to hospital staff.

Michael Applethwaite, regional sales director at Synopsis, said the digital platform would help the trust manage the backlog of elective surgeries postponed because of the pandemic.

“Trusts are trying to establish how many patients on the waiting list still wish to go ahead with their operation, identify patients who may have deteriorated physically or medically, or who have other long-term comorbidities that may affect their suitability for surgery,” he added.

“Immediate access to real-time information is crucial. Using Synopsis Home and Synopsis iQ will mean hospital can quickly triage and identify patients that are fit and ready for their operation while focusing on those who require a more detailed, hospital-based assessment, all while benefitting from referrals data, replies and completed risk assessment information being instantly accessible via a central digital platform.”

Other trusts using Synopsis Home and iQ include South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which launched the platform in June 2020.

Rachel Foley, former senior sister pre-operative assessment countywide at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “Earlier pre-operative assessment interventions using Synopsis iQ and Home are allowing us to identify patients at high risk of being unfit for their operation sooner, and intervene with more effective medical input to ensure they stand the best chance of their surgery going ahead.

“The platform is also helping us to reduce unnecessary pre-operative assessment visits, so we can reduce the number of patients in waiting rooms at any one time.

“This will be especially beneficial as we tackle the backlog of elective surgery postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.”