Inhealthcare is working with one of the UK’s largest teaching hospital trusts to develop the next generation of virtual wards. Natalie Duffield, sales and marketing director, explains how the company is helping to improve patient experience and reduce pressure on NHS beds
For Toni Bailey, a 28-year-old mother of two from Leeds, the worst thing about being in hospital was the separation from her young children. She had been admitted to St James’s Hospital with severe abdominal pain. After two weeks in hospital undergoing treatment for pancreatitis, Toni was then able to join the virtual ward, using technology provided by Inhealthcare.
Toni said:
“Home is the best hospital in the world. I was desperate to get home to my family. It meant I could be in my own bed, eat my own food and be with my children to lift my spirits while being closely monitored by a brilliant team of nurses. If I hadn’t had the opportunity to join the virtual ward, I believe I would have been ill a lot longer.”
Toni spent two weeks on the virtual ward and is now on the road to recovery. She was one of the first patients to use the remote monitoring service at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which is helping patients to return home sooner and reducing their average length of stay by five days, according to an analysis of the first six months since launch.
The world of virtual care and virtual wards
The virtual wards provide an alternative to admission or enable earlier discharge for patients requiring daily monitoring but stable enough to be at home. As a result, the trust saved an estimated 959 bed days between November and April with an estimated efficiency saving of £372,000, equivalent to nearly £15,000 per week. A total of 176 patients used the service during the period. To provide some context, the trust has 2,050 beds and last year made nearly 94,000 inpatient admissions.
The first six pathways are within abdominal medicine, surgery, and oncology. In partnership with Inhealthcare, the trust plans to expand the service to add six more pathways for patients with vascular, neurological and pancreatic conditions, with further additions to follow in the future.
As a Yorkshire company, we are delighted to be working with Leeds Teaching Hospitals to improve patient experience, ease pressure on hospital beds and develop the next generation of virtual wards at one of the largest NHS trusts in the UK.
Abigail Uttley, service manager at the trust, said: “While developing a service that is directly assisting the NHS with the crisis of over-occupied beds, it has been rewarding to see our remote monitoring virtual wards come to life, enabling patients to be cared for in their own homes with the safety of technology. Remote monitoring is the most effective way in ensuring patients can be discharged safely but still receive excellent care.”
Adam Peckham-Cooper, lead consultant for emergency general surgery, added:
“The remote monitoring virtual wards have been a game-changer for expeditiously managing patients in a different way safely and effectively. We have for many years held on to a varied set of patients in hospital beds awaiting investigations, interventions or just for ongoing observation. By using bespoke pathways, we have managed to facilitate earlier discharges and streamline ambulatory care of patients, vastly improving patient experiences.”
The teams: Providing patient care
The trust has established a multi- specialist nursing team which works with lead clinicians to make sure they provide the safest level of care to patients.
Alessia D’Angelo, senior sister for remote monitoring virtual wards, said: “The technology is used extremely well in care pathways, offering patients reassurance at home, where anxiety may arise, particularly before procedures. It proves invaluable during hospital admissions, providing recent observations to aid decision-making. Remote monitoring provides a crucial safety net when in-person appointments are unfeasible, enabling patients to share recent health readings for informed care decisions outside normal hours.”
Patients or their caregivers are empowered to take physiological measurements such as blood pressure, respiration rate, and oxygen saturation, and securely transmit their readings to care teams via mobile app, text or phone. Care teams have a single, centralised view of patient data to support clinical decision making and if any readings fall out of range, they are alerted to enable early intervention.
Muzahir Tayebjee, lead consultant for the programme, said:
“The use of remote monitoring equipment in conjunction with the virtual ward increases the safety and efficiency of the service, while also reducing the workload on ward staff by eliminating the need for them to take time to record these observations.”
Patient feedback has been positive with surveys showing the vast majority of respondents found the service easy to use, felt comfortable being monitored and spoke with clinicians when they needed to. Respondents added the virtual wards saved travel time to and from hospital and improved their health care experience.
Morgan Wallace, a 66-year-old retired headteacher from Otley in West Yorkshire, was diagnosed with lung cancer last year. As part of his treatment involving chemotherapy and immunotherapy, he experienced infections that required hospital stays for IV antibiotics. During his last infection, doctors suggested Morgan try the virtual ward to recover at home.
Morgan said: “I could just carry on life as normal – walk around, read books, normal day-to-day things. There was nothing preventing me from just carrying on.” He especially valued spending time with his young grandchildren. “At home, I was closely monitored but could be in my own environment. For me, the remote monitoring virtual ward was brilliant.”
