11.15 - 12.30

Sustained pressure on acute medical bed capacity at Borders General Hospital has resulted in Emergency Department overcrowding and lengthy waits for inpatient beds. The respiratory team received short term national funding to establish a technology enabled virtual ward to improve patient flow.  

In this session you will hear about patients who were admitted to the virtual ward as an alternative to hospital admission or to support earlier discharge from hospital. Seven respiratory pathways had locally configurable alarm settings and associated patient tasks. With data being monitored on a clinical dashboard from which the clinical team managed alarms triggered, undertook video consultations and communicated with patients via two-way messaging. 

As a result, there were 52 virtual ward admissions to six of the seven respiratory pathways and 559 physiological alarms triggered and 236 occupied bed days were saved.  

This session will allow you to understand how remote monitoring technology can enable high acuity patients to be safely managed at home and look at the difference between a technology enabled virtual ward and traditional Hospital at Home service.