The East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust has implemented a new A&E traffic-light based monitoring system, to help ensure that no patient is kept waiting for longer than four hours.
The system, named Klok and implemented by Blueberry consultants, is a web-based system linked to the trust’s patient administration system (PAS).
Staff can view information on all the patients in the department on a whiteboard, and each patient is given a colour, based on the traffic light displays to show the urgency of the case and how long the patient has been waiting.
The trust’s IT projects manager, Teri-Ann Grange, said: “The new Klok system allows staff to monitor the A&E department in real time, and change any procedures that lead to breaches of the four hour rule. It also allows staff to track patients as they are moved around the hospital.”
A&E staff can also log onto the system using any device through the website and edit patient details, or transfer them to other areas. The interface with the main PAS means that requests can be made through the system for medical records and nurses can allocate cases to doctors using administration screens – medical records are not saved on the system.
Grange added: “The features seen as most useful by our A&E staff is the ‘white’ display indicating the allocation of a doctor or clinician to a patient, and their accompanying medical notes.
“The ‘traffic light system’ of green-yellow-red-black colour coding to show how long a patient has been waiting rakes out all the guesswork, making the system foolproof.”
The trust had previously been recording patient information on a whiteboard to monitor the amount of time patients spent in A&E for assessment, treatment or a medical decision.
This was successful, but breaches were still occurring too often and the trust wanted a solution that would incorporate the whiteboard theme, but alert staff to more urgent cases.
Since going live earlier this year, the trust says they are beginning to see the benefits of the new system.
Grange said: “The benefits are really starting to emerge. It’s reduced the incidence of breach, and despite some initial reservations from staff who felt that this was a management-only tool, and that they would prefer to continue using the whiteboard, staff very quickly realised that Klok made the old manual whiteboard a thing of the past.”
Patients too, are benefiting from the deployment, she added: “Patient care has been significantly improved because the Klok system shows requests for x-rays and medical records.”
Bed managers are also able to view the system, making bed allocation more efficient for the trust, though this is not controlled through the system.
Managers are able to use the system to produce reports ensuring that breaches of the four hour rule are avoided.
Grange said: “As a management tool, it is easily viewed by general managers and other senior staff, which helps them manage their department’s performance.”
Blueberry developed the Klok system especially for the trust and now hopes to be able to implement it across England.
Robert Smith, business manager for Blueberry said: “We believe Klok helps in the delivery of better, safer care to patients, because it supports the changing infrastructure of the NHS, which is gearing up to deliver accurate information through IT and its Connecting for Health initiative.”
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Joe Fernandez