Country Selector: United Kingdom
December 2024
Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust in northern England is dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of the local community. With that goal in mind, the Trust aims to provide a working environment that promotes wellbeing, uses digital innovations to integrate care, improve patient outcomes through enhanced quality and safety.
As a result, when the Trust needed to refurbish its Wensleydale ward - an acute cardiology and respiratory medical ward with a high turnover of patients – at its Harrogate District Hospital site, it decided to embrace the latest digital solutions to create a 'digital exemplar ward'.
Having a nurse call system is a statutory requirement, but the hospital went further by installing a smart nurse call solution in partnership with Ascom that would help the nursing team work smarter in delivering care.
With traditional nurse call systems, patients request assistance by pressing a nurse call button, which creates an alert sound and light. This alert sound and light is only muted when the nurse responds and turns off the alert.
With Smart Nurse Call, the request for assistance is directed to the designated team member’s mobile device. This resulted in the following improvements:
12.2% (22 seconds) improvement in response times.
Up to 41% reduction in patients falling, pre vs post implementation. Zero falls for 6 weeks following go-live of Ascom's Nurse Call solution.
£57,000 estimated annual cost saving for the ward.
"I get to see which patient is using their call bell and where they are in the ward, and I can prioritise based on my knowledge of the patients’ conditions. Ascom's nurse call solution is great in an emergency, as I can identify exactly where I’m required and can rush to assist just by looking at my Ascom Myco 4 smartphone."
Simon Brazier
Clinical Site Manager, Chief Clinical Digital Officer (Nursing, Midwifery and AHPs) at Harrogate District and District NHS Foundation Trust.