SystmOne Virtual Ward solution

Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust have implemented a Virtual Wards solution using SystmOne which has delivered a wide range of benefits to services and patients. The solution identifies, supports, and monitors vulnerable young people with additional needs in secure settings and provides a consistent approach to care planning to reduce incidents and potential harm. The team at LCH used SystmOne’s Clinical Development Kit to design and implement Protocols, Questionnaires, Views, and Data Entry Templates to support new ways of working for teams in the Secure Estate healthcare services. An overarching protocol guides users through the workflow to allocate new referrals, complete questions about new admissions, and update details of MDT discussions.

Frankie Skirrow, Clinical Head of Service for secure estates in LCH, said ‘I’ve seen a huge improvement in the quality of care for our Young People without increasing the burden or workload for clinical staff. It’s not often a new process delivers both, it’s a win-win for the service’.

Suitable patients are admitted to Virtual Wards managed by different specialist teams; bespoke wards have been created to support the delivery of care in areas such as Nursing, CAMHS, pharmacy, and substance misuse. The service also uses the system to manage and document daily Virtual Ward multidisciplinary discussions. A Virtual Ward View provides a clear history of the patient’s care and the team’s decision making, which is visible to all staff across the estate and makes clinical handover simpler and safer.

Recent audits have shown that this structured approach to support complex clinical decision-making has resulted in a vast improvement in the standard of record keeping. It has also provided an improved and consistent approach to Safeguarding discussion and referrals. Structuring the management of these patients using Virtual Wards has presented the teams with more opportunities to provide interventions, and led to a reduction in missed appointments.

Perhaps most importantly, LCH have seen a reduction of clinical incidents and incidents related to care planning, leading to a better quality of care for Young People. The Virtual Ward implementation was highlighted as good practice in a recent CQC/HMIP inspection, and the Operational Head of Service at LCH, Stacey Hayton, said: ‘The Virtual ward has had a positive impact on how we deliver care as a multidiscipline team, I haven’t seen anything like this in other secure settings.’

The team at LCH are planning to use the data they have captured to identify trends regarding repeat admissions and the reasons these occur. This will support service planning and enable proactive engagement with young people and the secure estates on a range of health, vulnerability, and safeguarding issues.

For more information please contact Lee Maloney, Clinical Systems Specialist at LCH, at leemaloney@nhs.net, or Frankie Skirrow, Clinical Head of Service for secure estates in LCH, at f.skirrow@nhs.net.

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