Nottingham University Hospitals Information Technology
Technology is helping to free up nurses to spend more time with patients at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH). Wireless networks, tablet computers and portable phone handsets are helping to save time and money, according to a study commissioned by the European Commission. The survey by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants assessed the impact of introducing new collaboration technology from Cisco and Nervecentre at NUH. And it reveals a significant improvement in patient safety, operational efficiency and clinical governance in the out-of-hours Hospital at Night emergency department service. The new hospital systems include a Cisco medical-grade network to provide both wired and wireless network access; a real-time workforce management system from Nervecentre; and 11 Cisco Cius mobile collaboration tablets. Andrew Fearn, director of ICT services at the trust, said: "Working with Cisco and Nervecentre we have been able to introduce a system that removes unnecessary complexity and from which NUH will reap direct financial and operational benefits, as well as being able to help patients get more timely care. These results show that collaborative processes, supported by networked communications and collaboration, can deliver significant improvements in performance in the areas of quality and productivity."
