Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh FT deploys patient flow solution

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has become the first organisation in the UK to deploy Altera Digital Health’s patient flow solution.

The system went live at the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in March 2024, with the aim of  realising operational efficiencies, improving patient safety and streamlining discharge.

Ward staff along with the bed management, portering, domestic, and infection prevention and control teams, are using the system either directly or via integration with the existing Altera Sunrise electronic patient record (EPR) system.

Altera Patient Flow provides visibility of capacity with real-time insight into bed status, bed availability and patient movement across the hospital, which makes it possible to proactively manage emergency and elective patient flow.

Pam Green, deputy director for clinical informatics and chief nursing information officer at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh, said: “Staff have embraced the change and the technology adoption has been brilliant.

“They understand that by supporting the service improvement it won’t just make a difference to their working day but will ultimately have a big impact on our patients”.

Porters at the trust can now use iPads instead of paper to show their job lists, and can manage requests and worklists via an iPhone app.

The domestic team can also see which beds are reserved in the system, so they can prioritise them for cleaning and staff can see areas that cannot be used or need reviewing owing to infection.

Kevin Parker-Evans, chief nursing officer at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh, said that digital transformation has driven a “significant culture change” at the trust.

“It’s given us a true live state and now we intend to use it to navigate our bed and capacity meetings,” he said.

Mary Fleming, chief executive of Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh, said the patient flow management would “provide crucial real-time data for decision-making”.

“This will play a major role in creating a seamless, integrated healthcare system that prioritises patient needs, enhances staff efficiency and keeps pace with the demands of the modern healthcare landscape,” Fleming added.

Rachael Fox, executive vice president, EMEA at Altera Digital Health, said that planning has started to roll the system out further across the trust’s Wrightington Hospital and day surgery sites.