Industry news in brief

The latest Digital Health News Industry round up includes details on a name change, a robotic surgical systems installation and the launch of digital pre-op assessments for one trust.

Midlands Partnership chooses Agilisys for business intelligence strategy

The Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has selected Agilisys to develop a business intelligence strategy to enhance the trust’s data and analytics capabilities.

As a result, the trust will have a single business intelligence tool that can be used across the whole of Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT). Previously this information was used by just the Business Intelligence Team but by making it available trust-wide, regardless of skill-level, it will support massive growth in the trust’s data warehouse. In turn, this will support MPFT’s ambitions for HIMSS 7.

The two organisations are now working together on delivering a roadmap that informs the trust’s decisions on migrating its data to the cloud. In support of this, the trust is transitioning to Microsoft’s Power BI to re-platform the trust’s data and analytics capabilities. This will provide flexible, intuitive tools to help reporting and evidence-based decision making.

Peter Newton, associate director of information and contracting at MPFT, said: “This work is a fundamental part of our vision for the organisation to be making informed decisions based on the data that we hold. It will improve patient care and ensure our services meet the needs of our populations. The Covid-19 pandemic, for example, disproportionately impacted certain demographics, meaning the need for visibility over data is even more imperative.”

Paul Malcolm, healthcare and NHS lead at Agilisys, said: “This latest programme is hugely exciting because it lays the foundations for a data-led, proactive organisation where the right information is available to the right people, at the right time, through an easy to use single platform.”

The strategy will support MPFT’s digital strategy ambition that was recently published, highlighting how data and analytics can be used to empower staff and patients.

Four London trusts launch the North West London Nurses Collaborative Bank

In a bid to transform staffing and enhance flexibility for London-based nurses, four major trusts in the capital have launched a platform to broadcast vacant hospital shifts to nursing staff.

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Chelsea and Westminster Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust have launched the North West London Nurses Collaborative Bank.

The platform will create a shared pool of nurses available to fill vacant shifts across all four acute trusts, with shifts broadcast simultaneously. The move will help match the needs of each trust with individual nurses, who will have more options over where and when they work.

It is also hoped that the initiative will reduce spending on agency staff for the trusts involved, fill vacant shifts quickly to reduce rota gaps and give admin teams the ability to create sustainable schedules that can flex along with demand.

Lindsey Waddell, programme lead for the NWL Consolidation Programme, said: “With the right tech solutions in place, we can unleash the full capacity of London’s NHS workforce ahead of a potentially challenging winter. This will help to reduce the pressure on an exhausted workforce whilst maintaining the highest standards of safety and patient care.

“Improved regional collaboration is a key objective here at the North West London ICS, so we’re delighted to be part of this trailblazing workforce initiative with our closest neighbours.”

The Collaborative Bank is all part of the trusts’ efforts to create a thriving, sustainable workforce and comes after the same four trusts established the North West London Collaborative Bank for Doctors.

Using Patchwork Health technology, the fully digitized staff bank enables nurses to book shifts through an app and the trusts to handle their staffing needs via a bespoke dashboard. The tech-based solution also enables nurses to securely and compliantly passport their pre-employment verifications between trusts helping to tackle the admin burden associated with filling shifts.

Dr Anas Nader, CEO at Patchwork Heath, added: “At Patchwork Health, we’re confident that Collaborative Banks can safely make genuine flexible working in the NHS available to all. Offering staff more flexibility drives up wellbeing and retention, and delivers better outcomes for everyone. Crucially, this can all happen whilst protecting the employer’s ability to maintain predictability over workforce planning and improving standards of patient care.”

Perfect Ward becomes Tendable

Perfect Ward, the quality inspection app and digital platform for health and social care settings, is to be known as Tendable from December 1 2022.

The name change has been instigated to reflect the values and diversity of its growing global customer base.

Tim Bolot, founder and CEO of the company said, “Our name may have changed but our business values stay the same.  As our business expands into new sectors and new markets across the globe, the name Tendable reflects who we are and the increasing diversity of our expanding customer community.”

The new name was chosen to reinforce the company’s mission to create the easiest to use, most reliable quality improvement and assurance solutions. It aims to deliver the best insights to the world’s health and care professionals, the boards managing them and where necessary the regulators giving oversight to the sector.

Bolot continued: “We continue to innovate with purpose, working closely with our community to develop outstanding digital technology. This empowers health and care teams to set and reach the highest standards of quality and safety.”

Christie Private Care acquires robotic integrated surgical system

Christie Private Care, part of HCA Healthcare UK, has added the da Vinci Xi robot to its newly installed state-of-the-art £7.8m theatres.

The addition of the robotic integrated surgical system brings a new level of minimally-invasive complex cancer surgery to its private patients that is unavailable elsewhere in the Manchester region.

The da Vinci Xi gives surgeons far greater flexibility and precision across a range of non-invasive surgeries, which means patients suffer less post-op pain, have quicker recovery times and are at lower risk of surgical complications.

Claire Smith, CEO, HCA UK Joint Ventures said: “By investing in our theatres at The Christie Private Care and acquiring the most advanced robotic surgical system, we have enhanced our capability even further, opening up new routes to minimally invasive and complex surgery and our incredible teams of surgeons and theatre teams.

“We are incredibly proud to be the first in the region to offer this technology in the independent sector ensuring that when it comes to cancer care, we are uniquely positioned to be able to support patients throughout their clinical pathway.”

The system uses firefly fluorescence imaging to give surgeons real-time visualisation and assessment of vessels, bile ducts and tissue perfusion. This means they can operate more easily across multiple quadrants of the body with better access for complex procedures.

Hampshire Hospitals launches digital pre-op assessments

Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has introduced Synopsis iQ and Synopsis Home digital pre-op assessments for patients waiting for planned surgeries.

The digital solution will be launched at Andover War Memorial Hospital, Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital and Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester.

Many of the issues experienced by the team in pre-assessment will be resolved through its implementation. For example, all communication and documentations can happen within the Synopsis dashboard, so each patient’s pathway is visible to all relevant staff. The Synopsis dashboard is fully integrated with the PAS, EPR and theatre scheduling systems which should help boost efficiency in the elective surgery process.

Sarah Gold, head of quality assurance at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Our patients can now start their pre-assessment journey at the earliest possible point in their pathway, which gives us the opportunity to triage them once they are listed and have completed their pre-operative assessment questionnaire out of hospital using Synopsis Home.

“This will help us ensure every patient is on the correct pathway for them, be that a straightforward one, or one that requires early specialist intervention from our anaesthetic team.”

She continued: “When we learned about Synopsis, we felt strongly that the platform was designed with equal consideration given to the requirements of both the patient and specialist pre-op staff using it and that it would support our recovery plan. The benefits really did speak for themselves, and it was clear each time we learned more about the platform that it was the right digital solution for the trust.”

FCMS goes live with CLEO CORE

Health and wellbeing provider FCMS’ Clinical Assessment Service in Blackpool has now gone live with CLEO CORE, to support the delivery of its healthcare services.

The adoption of CLEO CORE means that the Blackpool and Morecambe Clinical Assessment Service (CAS) is able to electronically prescribe through the integrated CLEO EPS, and clinically refer patients where necessary.

The clinicians in the CAS are able to view a read-only version of patients’ GP practice record. It allows for a greater level of clinical expertise in assessing patients, which helps ensure they are directed efficiently and effectively into the most relevant onward care pathway.

In addition, CLEO CORE also gives the FCMS team access to Summary Care Record, Medical Interoperability Gateway, Child Protection Services and Safeguarding functionality.

Lee McGlynn, chief operating officer at FCMS, said: “FCMS values organisations who are willing to work in partnership to direct the products to best meet the needs of patients and the wider health system and, in CLEO, FCMS see an opportunity to work with a digital solution fit for today’s health ecosystem with the social enterprise ethos at its core.”

David Brown, managing director, CLEO Systems said: “It has been fantastic working with FCMS on this deployment, which has been a real collaboration in interoperability and means that clinicians and patients alike will benefit from enhanced clinical support when assessing patients.”

FCMS’ focus on its digital transformation programme is about creating an interoperable digital infrastructure that is underpinned by the CLEO Systems’ ability to use APIs to deliver simple interoperability.