Digital innovation helps patients access hospital level support at home thanks to virtual ward care
Patients can access hospital support while at home through a virtual ward service where they are assessed face-to-face by a doctor and given monitoring equipment to use at home, which allows them to regularly report vital assessments via a digital app to medical and nursing teams based inside the hospital or community.
Virtual ward services combine local partnership working, good clinical practice, and digital technology investment to create care models that help healthcare professionals treat patients closer to their community or in their homes.
UHDB's virtual ward services cover East Staffordshire and Derbyshire, and the Trust works closely with partners Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust (MPFT) > and Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust > (DCHS) who provide community care services. The service offers 20 general medicine virtual ward 'beds' in East Staffordshire and 30 virtual ward 'beds' in Derbyshire for cardiac (heart failure) and 10 virtual ward beds for respiratory conditions.
Patients are identified in community care settings or at the emergency department (ED) and consultants review whether patients are suitable for virtual ward care on a case-by-case basis. UHDB provide consultant support overseeing admissions and reviewing patients' cases and the community nursing teams at Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust and Derbyshire Community Health Services closely monitor patients on virtual ward care in the community and provide home visits to patient s where needed.
One patient who has benefitted from the virtual ward, has shared her experience of receiving care from a team of experts inside the hospital at UHDB, while she rested in the comfort of her own home.
Earlier this year, Catherine Johnson, was admitted to hospital for suspected pneumonia after becoming very poorly. This was a distressing time for her, having never been admitted to hospital before. After four days on the respiratory ward, she was assessed by a consultant who referred her to the virtual ward service, where she could continue her recovery at home while being closely monitored remotely by a dedicated nursing team.
She submitted her oxygen levels twice a day through a digital app, explaining it was 'really straight forward to use and access, and agreed regular check-in times with the lead nurse, Adrian Cabrera. After a few days of being monitored remotely, Catherine's oxygen levels dropped, and her nursing team quickly mobilised to contact her and re-admit her into the hospital's high dependency unit to receive treatment. Once stabilised, Catherine was sent home again and monitored closely through virtual ward remote monitoring technology, and eventually was cleared for medical discharge.
Catherine commented, "I was anxious when I was first admitted to hospital as I was really unwell, and the last time I needed hospital care was when I was pregnant, so this was unknown territory for me. I was reviewed by the ward consultant and was assessed as stable enough to be observed at home and was referred to the virtual ward service. The lead nurse, Adrian, was really helpful in explaining about the virtual ward service and the whole process. I was given equipment to monitor my oxygen levels and clear instructions about how to submit my information into the app and details about checking in regularly, so I felt really reassured throughout."
"They were able to pick up that I became unwell while at home quickly through the data I submitted and promptly contacted me and placed me back into hospital care. I was confident that I was in good hands due to how diligent the team were and felt glad to be able to spend most of my recovery at home, as being in hospital can be quite scary."
Adrian, the respiratory virtual ward nurse specialist, added, " Our virtual ward service allows patients with respiratory conditions to get the care they need at home safely and conveniently, rather than being in hospital. It has been really rewarding to support patients in their own home whilst they are acutely unwell, providing the vital treatment and monitoring that is still necessary for their condition."
"As a new service, we are continually developing and finding ways we can further support a wider range of patients.''
The respiratory virtual ward service includes the nursing team, Salma Ali, Kate Morgan, and Adrian Cabrera, an advanced clinical practitioner, Sue Racey, and the respiratory virtual ward consultants Dr Deepak Subramanian, Dr Hannah Lawrence, Dr Tom Bewick, and Dr Irfan Wahedna.
UHDB's Deputy Medical Director, and programme lead for virtual wards at the Trust, Chris Whale commented, "Our virtual ward service at UHDB offers patients the opportunity to recover in their community or at home when they don't quite need to be at hospital but still need that dedicated level of care. Not only does this improve patient experience by supporting people to recover in a familiar environment with their loved ones around, but it also reduces length of stay at hospital without compromising on the quality of care patients expect and deserve.''
In turn, this allows us to work more efficiently by directing hospital bed spaces to those most in need of acute hospital care. While there is more work to do before we expand this service, for now, we will continue working with our partners to offer more virtual beds to patients, and across more specialties so we can help more people like Catherine to get the care they need closer to home.''
More Derbyshire and Burton residents can access 'hospital at home' healthcare with multiple virtual wards now running for respiratory, cardiac and general medicine areas.
This innovation helps local NHS systems to:
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Avoid patients attending ED from being admitted into hospital if they don't need to be.
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Discharge patients from hospital sooner by putting in place monitoring and community care follow-up where necessary.
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Provide assessment, monitoring, and treatment for patients with increasing health needs in their community or home before considering 'virtual wards' care or hospital admission.
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Prevent hospital admission of clinically suitable patients at urgent and emergency care departments that can receive their care at home.