The Virtual Ward
Download
Report
Transcript The Virtual Ward
eAcute
Dr Paul Sullivan
Clinical Director of Quality Improvement,
Salford Royal Foundation Trust
Senior Quality Improvement Fellow,
Centre for Healthcare Improvement Research,
Imperial College, London
Risks of hospital stay
Risk of infection
Risk of medical accidents
Medication errors
Loss of control
Discomfort, sleeplessness
Disruption
Medical Reasons?
Treatment only available in hospital
Monitoring
Risk of rapid deterioration
Temporary increase in care needs
Survey
Daily review of general medical inpatients in a
medical ward– 240 bed days
Classified into 19 “reasons”
15% of patients did not need to be in hospital
Survey of medical wards
23%
of medical in-patients “stable”
of cases by expert panel – 9.6%
could be managed at home
Review
Of
patients delayed for <2 weeks,
43% were due to medic behaviour
Survey of medical wards
Daily
visit to medical wards, each team
contacted
Able
to identify that 15% of in-patients
could be managed in virtual ward system
Average
LOC after identification 10 days
Things
have moved on since then
Delays
in diagnostics removed
LOS
saved likely to be 1-2 days
Reasons for delay
Waiting for test
Waiting for results
Waiting for opinion
Waiting for senior review
Why?
apprehensive about discharge –
loss to f/u, delay to first OPA
Medics
Team
need to make a decision(s) straight
after the next test(s)
No
knowledge of OP services
Is there a better way of managing these
patients?
Could they be at home?
Survey on 28 bed EAU 2006
Could this patient be safely and effectively
managed at home
Audit on 28 bed AMU
Could this patient be safely and effectively
managed at home
2-7 patients each day
Alternatives
Traditional OPD setting has limits
Time between available follow up slots
Patient “visible” only at clinic visit
Availability of diagnostics
Time
to next FOLLOW UP slot
Gen med
Cardiology
GI
Chest
2-11 weeks
17 weeks
8 weeks
7 weeks
Alternatives
Priority patients can be managed at home by
individual clinicians
Time consuming, no support, numbers limited
Risk of loss to follow up
eAcute
An electronic patient list to which multiple users can add and which
can be seen by all members of the Acute Medicine team.
Every weekday at 10am = virtual ward round
This is attended by Acute Medicine consultants, mid grades and FY
doctors and the advanced practitioner nurse on the EAU.
Every patient is discussed every week-day.
Junior staff are available to arrange tests, liaise with diagnostic
depts etc.
If tests are inappropriately delayed we notice immediately and
rectify
Results are seen immediately and consultant level decisions follow
Patients can be reviewed as often as needed by telephone
Patients can be recalled to EAU for bloods or clinical assessment
We have arrangements with radiology, cardiology and endoscopy so
that virtual ward patients are accorded high priority
eAcute
In-patient
Out-patient (Ambulatory)
Junior staff available to arrange tests, deliver
cards to diagnostics, speak to other services
e.g. radiologists
No staff available
If tests missed for whatever reason (card lost,
patient DNA, test postponed) it is immediately
spotted and rectified
Patient cannot be guaranteed to have test and
clinician may not know if test missed
If further action is indicated by a test result, it
can be taken immediately.
Results generally not reviewed until next
outpatient appointment
Patient has daily review
Reviews limited by time between outpatient
visits
Historically, inpatients have been regarded as
more urgent and have tests done quickly.
There are often longer waits for outpatient
investigations.
This is the eAcute ward
Ideal for
Time-Critical
investigation
High
risk if inadvertent delays
High
risk if DNA
Ideal for
Rapid/serial decisions on test results
Test 2 depends on test 1
Early/frequent communication with pt
Results
160
40
140
35
120
30
100
25
80
20
60
15
40
10
20
5
0
0
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
bed days saved
patients
Results
Low Rockall UGI bleed
?VTE
Other
uss abdo
discuss
review radiology
await result
ett
pos blood cul
monitor bloods
ct brain
24h tape
rv clinically after we
Implementation
Not
as easy as it seems
Critical features
Watertight
Access
– IT solution ideal
24/7, anywhere
Embedded
in daily work
Redundancies
– can’t be forgotten
I
know, with absolute certainty, that if I
send a patient home on Sunday, a trusted
consultant will pick up the issues on
Monday.
Critical features
Prioritisation
Patients are regarded as in-patients by:
Radiology
Endoscopy
Echo, ETT
How
did we do that?
Our story….
Developing IT solution
Making it work in the normal day
Getting radiology to prioritise
Getting other departments to prioritise
Sustaining
Constant
vigilance for fall off in
prioritisation
Local
ownership
Keeping
Just
it team wide
add hot water!
4096 bed days in 24
months
5.7 beds free on any
day
Roll out – estimate
additional 5-10 beds
23 minutes per day
for 2 consultants and
team
50 minutes per day
for a JD
Transfer
Make it watertight – daily case review prevents delays, loss to follow up etc.
Timetable daily senior case review so it is guaranteed. Several people need
to be involved to ensure that this happens every day, regardless.
Develop an electronic patient list that is visible to all members of the team
all the time – initial attempts with individual paper lists failed
Choose an area with high patient throughput so that there are always some
virtual patients to review, otherwise it is difficult to maintain the habit.
Start with a single investigation, we used CT pulmonary angiogram, and get
clinical directors involved.