NHS Nightingale Hospital North West has gone live with Alcidion’s Patientrack early warning system to help doctors and nurses spot deteriorating COVID-19 patients.
An early warning system that alerts nurses and doctors to patients who are deteriorating and require immediate intervention, has been deployed at the NHS Nightingale Hospital North West.
Located at the Manchester Central Convention Complex, and a part of the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust Group, the temporary hospital is dedicated to helping patients with COVID-19. It officially opened on 13th April to support patients across the North West of England.
Alcidion’s Patientrack system, which was deployed within a week, will enable nurses at the new hospital to digitally capture crucial vital signs and beside observations, and will automatically calculate the National Early Warning Score known as NEWS2 – a measure used by professionals across the NHS to quickly identify if a patient’s conditioning may be worsening.
Resulting early warning scores will alert staff to patients who may becoming more unwell through screens and devices used in the hospital.
The Patientrack system was configured and available in time for the opening of the Nightingale hospital, and was delivered by NHS technology partner Alcidion free of charge under an extension to a current arrangement with Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. Healthcare professionals at the Trust have been using the system for many years to significantly enhance patient safety.
Lynette Ousby, UK general manager for Alcidion, said: “Hospitals in Manchester were amongst the first in the UK to use Patientrack, and so it is incredibly rewarding to see a technology they have used in their mission to enhance patient safety now helping staff in the fight against COVID-19. We continue to stand by to help our customers across the country in any way we can, so that NHS heroes have the tools they need at this time of crisis.”
Rapid deployment was achieved by using Manchester Royal Infirmary as a blueprint for how staff have used the system at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, and then configuring the technology for wards at the NHS Nightingale Hospital North West.
More widely, the Patientrack system is used by dozens of hospitals and Trusts across the UK to help staff respond to and manage their sickest patients. NHS hospitals have innovated with the technology to improve how staff deal with deadly conditions including acute kidney injury and sepsis. And hospitals using the system have recorded rapid reductions in adverse events like cardiac arrests and admissions to intensive care.
Most recently a number of NHS hospitals have also adopted a free of charge development in the Patientrack system designed to help nurses assess respiratory patients for potential cases of COVID-19 and to help staff identify coronavirus patients sooner.
Alcidion group managing director Kate Quirke, said: “We are working with hospitals in different parts of the world to help them to make the most of the technology they have available to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. As one of our longest standing and largest partners globally, the NHS remains at the forefront of our focus and I hope the deployment at the Nightingale Hospital North West goes some way to alleviating pressure on the remarkable staff who use it.”
Alcidion Ltd has a simple purpose, that is, to make healthcare better with smart, intuitive solutions that meet the needs of hospital and allied healthcare, worldwide. Alcidion incorporates three healthcare software companies previously known as Alcidion Corporation, Patientrack and Smartpage, and MKM Health, an IT solutions and services provider. Each company brings a complementary set of products and skills that create a unique offering in the global healthcare market; solutions that support interoperability, allow communication and task management, and deliver clinical decision support at the point of care to improve patient outcomes. With over 25 years of combined healthcare experience, the Alcidion Group of companies brings together the very best in technology and market knowledge to deliver solutions that make healthcare better for everyone.
Patientrack helps hospitals deliver safer care – which is also more cost-effective care – by ensuring observation and assessment protocols are carried out correctly and consistently, and by automatically calculating early warning scores and alerting clinicians when interventions are needed. Through early identification of deteriorating patients, and the promoting of necessary assessments, Patientrack helps hospitals meet national and local targets for improvements in patient safety, improving patient outcomes and supporting frontline staff, while at the same time cutting costs and reducing paper. Patientrack was developed in conjunction with health professionals and its effectiveness in delivering both patient safety and cost improvements has been proven in a peer-reviewed clinical journal.
