Patient flow
Our patient flow module helps a hospital and its individual wards better manage patient journeys from pre-admission through to discharge by providing an accurate, real-time picture of its capacity and needs. It offers effective flow management by surfacing necessary information such as bed status, clinical data, outstanding tasks and discharge plans, all in one single view.
Patient flow provides a distributed control network for the organisation. It helps clinical and operational teams across the organisation make minute by minute decisions that help patients progress through their journey as safely and efficiently as possible. At the same time, it gives Trust wide visibility of the organisation's position, helping the senior leadership team identify problems and provide additional and targeted support where needed. This is further enhanced through CareFlow Connect, which provides team based coordination tools that are needed in the complex and fast changing environment of a hospital. CareFlow Connect's support extends across multiple care settings and organisations.
Our patient flow module is developed in line with the SAFER model which has been recognised by NHS Digital as a practical tool to reduce delays for patients in adult inpatient wards. It also provides direct support for the Emergency Care Improvement Programme (ECIP); identifying ‘stranded’ patients and the Red2Green campaign, highlighting wasted time in a patient’s journey.
It is a web-based application which works together with components of EPR such as the PAS, e-observations and clinical narrative, to provide a consolidated view of essential flow related information in real time, thus facilitating better patient flow management. Configuration is a significant feature of the solution, allowing an organisation to tailor the content and display to suit local Trust needs.
Key benefits:
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Improves care through effective discharge process
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Improves clinical outcomes through identification of stranded patients and outliers
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Reduces cost through better flow management
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Increases staff efficiency through better process management
Key components
Board round support
It has the ability to collate essential flow related data which can be used to support decision making at the board round. Multi-disciplinary teams can review each patient and briefly agree and record actions for urgent clinical review and discharge.
Capacity planning
Patient Flow combines real-time patient locations, transfer information, capacity data and predictive discharge data for effective capacity planning. This helps management teams to see hospital capacity, identify challenges in real-time and act accordingly.
Bed status in real-time
It can display all available beds, occupied beds, closed beds, planned departures, expected arrivals and transfers in one single view. The view is fully customisable and can be displayed by ward or site.
Discharge support
It supports clinicians by collecting, tracking and updating discharge tasks in real-time. Senior staff can also access the necessary discharge information, enabling them to plan resources where needed, to facilitate the discharge process.
Live dashboards
It has the ability to create live dashboards which display information such as bed management data, predicted admissions, and discharges, to analyse patient flow concerns operationally. Dashboards and reports are customisable to fit a trust’s specific needs.
Digital whiteboard
Patient Flow supports large ward-based touch screen whiteboard displays, as well as desktop and mobile devices. Views within the system are easy to select and are flexible, fully customisable and can be displayed by ward or an entire site.
