Patient monitoring
Keeping patients safe with wearable technologies
The NHS is seeking to advance the roll out of virtual wards and implement more efficient ways of working, in a bid to tackle the backlog and reduce pressures on UK hospitals. Advances in mobile patient monitoring are helping to keep patients safe and support new models of healthcare delivery. Louise Frampton reports.
During the first wave of the pandemic, NHSX supported a pilot that gave COVID-19 patients a pulse oximeter and an App. This meant they could leave hospital early or avoid admission altogether.1
The technology enabled patients
to provide their NHS clinical team with regular data on symptoms, including temperature and blood oxygen rates, so that they could recover while being monitored in the comfort of their own home. If the patient showed signs of deterioration, clinicians could be quickly alerted and respond. Prior to the pandemic, some Trusts had trialled ‘telemedicine’ approaches to healthcare delivery, but the model of ‘tech-enabled virtual wards’ really came to the fore as a means of dealing with the outbreak of COVID-19. The model was pioneered by Dr. Matthew Knight, MBE, and Dr. Andy Barlow at Watford General Hospital in March 2020 to prevent hospital admissions, assist early discharge, and ease pressure on staff. By June 2021, it was available at 92 sites across England.1
While the pandemic initially accelerated the adoption of remote patient monitoring technology, the trend continues to advance at pace – NHS England and NHS Improvement are asking all Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) to extend or introduce the virtual ward model. Virtual wards (also known as ‘hospital at home’) allow patients to obtain the care they need at home safely and conveniently, rather than being in hospital. The Government maintains that virtual wards are better for patients and their families – minimising the time
spent in hospital not only reduces the risk of infection transmission, but also reduces costs and resources associated with inpatient stays, ‘unblocks’ beds within the acute care setting, and helps ease pressure on NHS services.
Helping hospitals to increase patient turnover In January of this year, the Government announced that the NHS had increased the number of patients that could be cared for in this way by 7,000, a 50% increase since the summer of 2022. Another 3,000 ‘hospital at home’ beds were pledged before the Winter of
The UK has already seen the success of community monitoring of insulin in people with diabetes, using wearables. The use of mobile technology to manage a variety of conditions in the community will be a huge growth area. There is now significant funding available to support this.
32
www.clinicalservicesjournal.com I September 2023
2023. By 2024, the NHS is aiming to set up 40 to 50 virtual beds per 100,000 population. The Health and Social Care Secretary, Steve
Barclay, commented: “The health and care service is facing significant pressures and, while there is no quick fix, we can take immediate action to reduce long waits for urgent and emergency care. Up to 20% of hospital admissions are avoidable with the right care in place. By expanding the care provided in the community, the most vulnerable, frail and elderly patients can be better supported to continue living independently or recover at home. “This includes rolling out more services to help with falls and frailty, as well as supporting up to 50,000 patients a month to recover in the comfort of their own homes.” With virtual wards, patients can be reviewed
by the clinical team, who may visit them at home or use video technology to monitor and check how they are recovering. “The exact definition of a virtual ward and how it is managed varies, depending on the Trust,” explained David Britton, Patient Monitoring and
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76
