Somerset Trust eliminates non-urgent bleeps with digital task management

A report into Somerset NHS Foundation Trust’s use of a digital task management solution has found that it saved junior doctors 91 minutes per user per shift.

The out-of-hours project launched one year ago and introduced the hospital task management solution from Infinity Health. The solutions sees an out-of-hours coordinator log and allocate tasks on Infinity. The out-of-hours team at Somerset is then able to see what they’ve been allocated without the need to respond to bleeps.

An independent study, led by Unity Insights, into the digital task management found that over a typical 12.5 hours shift, the task management solution saved 12% of each team member’s time.

In addition, night-time non-emergency bleeps have been reduced by over 13,400 per year, while paper and handwritten lists have been completely eliminated.

Dr Luke Gompels, chief clinical information officer at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Over the last few years, we have been moving towards safe and effective ways of working digitally and this has become the norm for so many areas of healthcare, including the way our colleagues communicate with each other.

“This partnership has been a great example of how we can work together and transform the management of tasks to support each other and improve patient care.”

The system removes the need for clinical staff to respond to a bleep by calling the ward or taking handwritten notes. Instead, all of the information is collected by the coordinator and calls are triaged before being assigned to doctors, improving efficiency and freeing up valuable time.

Staff are also able to mark their tasks as ‘accepted’, ‘in progress’ or ‘complete’ so ward staff are able to see each task’s status in real-time.

Elliott Engers, CEO at Infinity Health, said: “The leadership team at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust have a clear vision and strong drive to improve their staff experience and patient safety, and we are privileged to be part of that story. We are looking forward to the next phase of the partnership which will bring the benefits of our platform to more doctors, nurses, and other staff at the trust.”

Somerset NHS Foundation Trust now plans to roll out the Infinity platform to its other departments in the coming months as part of a wider programme that uses digital solutions to support patients and colleagues.