List of the winners and the judges' comments (cont'd)
Categories:
Best innovative use of technology awards
First place
Good Hope Hospital NHS Trust
Re-design of a vascular surgical outpatient service using discrete event
simulation
This ambitious project started in 2000 to re-design the vascular surgery
outpatient service at Good Hope Hospital in order to meet increasing
demand and reduce long waiting times. The project was carried out in two
phases, the first was an informal, user driven re-organisation of the
outpatient service; the second phase was the design of a new vascular
surgery outpatient service for a proposed treatment centre new-build.
The hospital adopted an innovative formal technique borrowed from
industry called Discrete Event Simulation (DES) to design new care
pathways, resource allocations, booking schedules and financial models
for the new outpatient service. A new discrete event simulation software
tool (WFM-DES) was used to predict the complex interaction between
different patients competing for the limited specialist resources
available in the one-stop clinic.
The overall improved efficiency and effectiveness of this project was
associated with a measurable reduction in community cost of leg ulcer
treatment of 26% — which if extrapolated across the UK equates to a
saving in the order of £150m per annum. See longer
synopsis of project.
Judges’ comments:
“This project simply bowled over the judging panel with its scope,
vision and implementation of information and communication technology.
This clinician-led project is a tremendous achievement for this hospital
— the potential benefit of transporting this application throughout the
NHS is enormous.”
Second place (joint)
ETHITEC and Leicestershire Community Therapy Service
Implementing an electronic patient record system for allied health
professionals working in the community
This project set out to provide Leicestershire’s and Rutland’s newly
created Adult Community Therapy Services (physiotherapy, occupational
therapy, speech and language therapy, podiatry and dietetics) with a
uniform, multidisciplinary electronic patient record, accessible 24
hours a day across the county’s six primary care trusts. Specific goals
included the modernisation of appointment scheduling and the ability for
therapists to check on their patients’ treatment by other allied
healthcare professionals. Thirty-six months into the project 300 users
and 92 clinical locations use Ethitec’s Tiara 9 system operationally.
Appointment scheduling has been transformed with setting up of three
multidisciplinary appointment call centres with the ability to make
appointments anywhere in the county.
Judges’ comments:
“The judges were astounded at how this three-way partnership (Therapy
Services, Health Informatics Service and Ethitec) conquered clinical and
technical challenges to provide reliable information and unify a diverse
range of services across its community.”
Second place (joint)
Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh
BabyLink — improving communication between clinicians and parents with
babies in intensive care
The development of BabyLink was about using the Worldwide Web to improve
communication between clinical staff and parents and their families. It
enabled the feasibility of information to be presented in a way that
could be understood by the user; allowed clinicians and parents secure
access about a specific baby; enabled parents to post questions back to
the relevant clinician involved in their infant’s care; and could be
updated automatically as new clinical data are added to the electronic
patient record. See longer synopsis of project.
Judges’ comments:
“The judging panel sang the praises of this project as an excellent
example of providing specific parent-tailored baby information that uses
IT in a truly unique way.”
Highly commended
Nottingham City Primary Care Trust and Antecedent Limited
Software solution for intermediate care and community rehabilitation
services duty point
This is a real-time electronic capacity management and reservation
system that enables access to the services faster and easier — referrers
need instant access to current available beds and places. In a rapidly
expanding service it prevents bed conflicts and maintains equity. Beds
are booked through a Service Adviser via a central computer database,
enabling fast access to the same service used by different teams.
Referrers and assessors experience a streamlined and efficient referral
process with strict but simple in-hours and out-of-hours protocols.
Discharge facilitators receive daily lists of patients who could be
assessed for intermediate care in hospital, instead of waiting for an
assessment by intermediate care. They can instantly check the beds
available by a text message.
Judges’ comments:
“This system had only been fully operational for one month, which meant
it did not score as highly on measurable benefits as other projects. The
judges felt that the project overall is aspiration for other trusts to
follow and should be highly commended for its innovative use of
technology in primary and community care settings.”
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