Digital solutions ease pressure on healthcare professionals

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Operating theatres are at the heart of any hospital: their effectiveness, efficiency and productivity are vital in reducing waiting lists. Operating theatre departments, however, are not exempt from current NHS staffing problems, and many hospital trusts are reporting closed theatres daily, purely due to a lack of staff.

It is therefore critical that we turn our attention to how we can achieve more with current resources, increasing efficiencies where possible, ensuring staff are deployed in the most effective manner, equipping theatres appropriately for specific operating lists/cases, and reducing the downtime between cases, all without putting additional strain on existing staff. Scheduling is a critical component in ensuring operating theatre use is fully optimised; it also holds the key to enabling effective equipment and staff deployment.

Successful reduction of the elective backlog will be driven by a multi-faceted, tailored and consistent approach. The NHS has already expedited its digitalisation plans as a point of necessity throughout the pandemic. It must now bring to bear the full range of digital tools available to realise its most efficient potential, encouraging staff to work smarter, not harder.

Getinge’s global expertise and significant legacy in operating theatres (OTs) has resulted in the development of several successful solutions that can support hospitals in their efforts to reduce the backlog of patients waiting for an operation.

The solution

The elective backlog is a significant problem across the NHS, and Getinge believes a technological solution can provide much-needed help. With NHS staff being stretched further than before, technological solutions need to drive efficiencies, whilst not expecting the existing workforce to work harder.

Operating theatres represent the largest singular cost to a hospital, while also driving the majority of revenue. Being able to manage the patient journey to ensure that each department of the hospital knows what is coming next can deliver significant benefits to patients, staff and the hospital.

Getinge has developed INSIGHT and Torin, software solutions which can be connected with existing systems to deliver a simple and intuitive way of working. These solutions can be implemented separately or deployed in conjunction with each other. Successful implementation has been seen across hospitals worldwide and across all types and sizes of sites.

These solutions can deliver efficiencies and operational improvements across hospital disciplines, which in turn deliver significant savings, improve working environments and ultimately help reduce the NHS elective backlog.

Operating theatre management

To be effective, the elective surgery planning process must be both resilient and flexible. It should be reliable, inspire confidence from all users and stakeholders and be capable of reacting to late changes where necessary.

Ideally, the system would encompass waiting list management, resource management and identification of resource conflicts. Additional value is gained from OT-specific business intelligence and an ability to learn, using data from completed surgeries to better predict and schedule lists. The ability to pre-populate OT documentation and seamless electronic medical record system (EMR) integration gives significant benefits in reduced administration. Finally, the OT management system should allow for real-time progress views of the surgical list, sharing appropriate information with managers, clinicians, nursing staff and theatre support workers. It should be visible across all related areas including surgical reception, recovery and wards. This visibility and information sharing is vital in enabling patient flow and efficiency and in transforming that flow from “push” to “pull”.

Many hospitals use manual workarounds, shadow booking and paper records that attempt to make up for a lack of functionality or a lack of trust in the list process. These reduce efficiency and make process management more difficult. Getinge’s operating theatre management tool, Torin, was developed specifically for the needs and challenges of surgical departments. It is also modular, building up levels of capability.

The foundation module, Torin Planning, provides a user-friendly scheduling solution and visual overviews of surgical lists. Lists are booked in advance from referral or clinics as part of the elective planning and scheduling process. Once booked, Torin will manage all resources associated with the OT, including staff and equipment. A key feature is that resource conflicts are immediately highlighted to planners, avoiding time-consuming and potentially costly delays to surgery on the day.

Patient flow system

Getinge’s INSIGHT system gives you complete control over patient flow, from arrival to discharge. It supports the highest standards of care by allowing you to plan, prioritise and take action to manage patients and beds with a clear overview across the hospital.

INSIGHT enables staff to fully coordinate work processes in and across departments. On-screen visualisations of patients, tasks and assigned responsibilities help promote a focused, calm and efficient handling of the daily workflow. As data is shared in real time, INSIGHT enables better decision-making on all levels, from the individual caregiver to hospital management.

INSIGHT visualises bed locations and capacities, including cleaning state, reservations and special features. The scalable overview can be used for local administration in a single department or span the entire hospital, supporting central bed coordination teams in managing and allocating capacities. From the INSIGHT user interface beds are easily reserved for new or returning patients. This allows staff to prepare and promotes a better patient experience as all is ready for their arrival. As the patient is discharged and the bed marked as unclean, INSIGHT automatically notifies cleaning staff, enabling the support function to plan accordingly.

A partnership

The challenges facing many NHS hospitals up and down the country can seem daunting. Yet, while they represent a mountain ahead, they also provide opportunities for innovation and new technologies to be applied to help solve these challenges. Getinge’s new technologies and approaches have shown results, from increased throughput to decreases in average length of stay and reducing non-contact clinical time for staff, all helping to reduce waiting lists and improve patient outcomes.

None of this would have been achievable without the partnership approach, where both the hospital and Getinge work together, sharing best practices and delivering solutions to agreed common goals. As an organisation, Getinge’s number one focus is to improve patient outcomes by equipping hospitals and staff with the right technology provided in the right solution.

For more information please visit www.getinge.uk.

Originally published on Business Reporter