Heightened demand for virtual ward services
A surge in hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and winter-related conditions presented an increased need for home-based care to help reduce pressure on hospital resources.
Medway NHS Foundation Trust Case Study
Case Study
Meeting the demand for virtual ward services
How remote monitoring helped Medway to maximize virtual ward capacity and minimize hospital readmissions.
Medway NHS Foundation Trust’s SMART Service
Medway’s Surgical Medical Acute Response Team (SMART) are a dedicated team of nurses, consultants and therapists who lead the trust’s virtual ward program.
This program allows acute patients normally hospitalized to be discharged and receive care within their own home as a continuation of the hospital’s acute admission pathway.
The multidisciplinary team’s goals are to increase flow and efficiency of discharge across multiple clinical departments including pre- and postoperative, frailty, cardiovascular and respiratory.
Challenges
In early 2021, escalating hospitalizations brought an increased need for Medway’s virtual ward service. Delivering more in-home care while minimizing the risk of COVID-19 transmission was also a key challenge.
Added pressure on resource due to avoidable readmissions
Detection of health deterioration within patients suffering from chronic conditions can occur too late leading to rehospilization1 placing further pressure on resources.
Increased risk of virus transmission
Medway needed to minimize in-person visits to reduce risk of COVID-19 exposure and transmission while still delivering high quality and effective care to patients within their home.
Solution
Medway’s SMART service used Current Health’s platform to increase virtual ward capacity, reduce hospital readmissions and minimize potential virus exposure.
The technology was integrated to create a virtual care pathway to support patients suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD) or asthma.
Continuous vital sign monitoring at home
Following treatment for an acute exacerbation of COPD or asthma, patients were discharged home with Current Health’s monitoring kit.
Clinical dashboard for remote analysis
SMART visualized both real-time and trend health data for their patients on a single centralized dashboard. Disease-specific alarms alerted the team to the early signs of health deterioration.
Further assessment of health via video call
To understand symptoms and determine the reasons for health deterioration, the team engaged with their patients using built-in video calling.
Full Results
Reduction in hospital readmissions*
Automatic detection of health deterioration, permitted earlier intervention to be delivered in patients’ homes, preventing unnecessary readmissions.
Reduction in in-person home visits
Due to automated vitals capture and video calling, home visits could be minimized, reducing risk of virus exposure and transmission. Time savings also allowed the team to increase virtual ward capacity using the same clinical resource.
Patients extremely likely to recommend
Patients reported how reassured and comforted they felt by continuous monitoring and enjoyed the convenience of video calls with their care team.
1. Friebel R, Hauck K, Aylin P, et al. National trends in emergency readmission rates: a longitudinal analysis of administrative data for England between 2006 and 2016 BMJ Open 2018;8:e020325. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-020325
* Compared with a UK 90-day COPD readmission rate of 31%. Source: Harries, T.H., Thornton, H., Crichton, S. et al. Hospital readmissions for COPD: a retrospective longitudinal study. npj Prim Care Resp Med 27, 31 (2017)