NHS Grampian has gone live with new digital patient flow technology that will eventually play a key role in the management of outpatient appointments at the new Baird Family Hospital and ANCHOR Centre.
The board has launched the first phase of the project at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in preparation to move to The ANCHOR Centre and new Baird Family Hospital.
Working with digital patient flow specialist, Intouch with Health, it has gone live with a pilot for Flow Manager; a digital dashboard accessed by staff to view the status of each patient for the duration of their appointment from arrival to departure.
It has also launched digital self-check-in kiosks to let patients register their arrival for appointments and digital patient calling screens to call patients forward to individual consultation rooms.
Kelly Easton, eHealth programme manager at NHS Grampian, said: “With the deployment of the Intouch with Health patient flow platform, we’re looking forward to achieving an improved experience for our patients attending an outpatient appointment.
“Phase one of the project is going well, with almost 80% of outpatients checking in using a kiosk in the first two weeks of us going live.
She added: “We are looking forward to extending the use of the technology to The Baird Family Hospital and The ANCHOR Centre to support and enhance the provision of clinical care.
“Both of these buildings will include research and teaching facilities and will offer a person-centred environment of care.”
And Carol Platt, project manager at VitalHubUK, parent company of Intouch with Health, said: “Following a competitive tender process, we have worked closely with the project team who were keen to design the new buildings with patient experience and patient flow front of mind.
“As such, the new Baird Family Hospital and ANCHOR Centre have been designed with automated patient flow technology at their core to efficiently manage ambulatory appointments for the 500,000 population that NHS Grampian serves.”
In addition to Flow Manager and digital patient check-in, the new buildings will also use Intouch with Health’s Mobile Check-in technology to facilitate smartphone appointment check-in, and the company’s Room Booking Module to efficiently manage both clinical and non-clinical room utilisation.
