Mental health trust deploys Servelec’s patient management solution

South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust has gone live with a patient management solution from Servelec.

Using the supplier’s Flow solution the trust gains an end-to-end view of a patient journey, replacing time consuming manual processes.

The product replaces the trust’s existing patient management processes, which involved manually ringing around hospitals for updates on bed availability, handwritten notes on whiteboards, and duplication of entry as the same notes needed to be entered into the electronic patient record (EPR).

Staff at the trust can directly enter information onto a digital touchscreen through Flow, which instantly displays information about all patients in the hospital wards, including status and location.

South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust is an existing user of Servelec’s Rio EPR software, which integrates with Flow, and has a two-way interface that has significantly reduced dual input of data supporting safer and more efficient patient care.

Amallia Thomas, transformation project manager at the trust, said: “One of the main reasons we asked Servelec to install its Flow product was that there was no standardisation across the trust – we would do our ward handovers at the end of the shift, using multiple processes such as Microsoft Word, Excel, or even physical paper, which could be time consuming.

“Now we have Flow, we have an up to date view of every bed from every ward. We’re able to see how many beds are occupied, and which ones are free. We also have a full view of the patient journey, which greatly improves the patient experience.”

The implementation of the solution took two months to complete following the contract being signed in March.

It is currently being piloted on a number of wards before roll-out across all wards by the end of the year.

Steve Wightman, managing director of healthcare at Servelec, added: “South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust has taken a step towards improving bed management and patient journey processes and as a result will become a shining example to others on how digitising this process can improve lives for both staff and patients, especially in light of the current situation.

“We have now deployed our patient flow and bed management solution across all care settings including acute, community and mental health, which provides a great foundation for pan region patient flow processes.”