An NHS trust or local authority needs to ensure it is putting its finite budget to the best possible use. This means that when it comes to virtual wards and establishing the Hospital at Home practices, they need to know who the best virtual ward providers in the UK are at present.
This is difficult though, because nobody can give a clear, universal definition of what a virtual ward is. We’re learning what a virtual ward can do in terms of the care it can enable and support, but we are early in the development process which in turn makes it tough to list providers – including The Access Group – in order to compare and contrast what providers can do and which may be the most suited to your needs.
What is patient engagement? Patient engagement is when a patient is actively consulted and offered choices in their treatment and care. This will often involve healthcare professionals, carers, and the patient’s family all working together for the best outcome.
Patients are treated by healthcare professionals, but engaging patients more in decision making, treatment options and behavioural or lifestyle changes can be very effective. Research shows engaging patients in these ways can allay fears, reduce costs and promote better recovery.
The patient engagement definition can be confused with patient activation, so in this article we explain patient engagement in healthcare, the importance of patient engagement in healthcare, and the benefits – providing patient engagement examples to demonstrate the importance of patients being involved in their own care.
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Virtual wards are the future of healthcare. Hospitals will always serve as the reliable, tangible support system but they are not always the best solution. Research shows that patients recover quicker at home thanks to the reduction in stress and the reduced chance of contracting illnesses from other patients.
Steady progress is being made nationwide in the rollout of virtual wards, and The Access Group is already supporting virtual wards or ‘Hospital at Home’ with our remote monitoring software and Rio electronic patient record system, but virtual wards funding and virtual wards technology are just two parts to the assembly of these wards.
All wards are only as good as the healthcare professionals that staff them. It is their expertise and their commitment to patients that make a ward successful, but the performance and competency of healthcare professionals will have an exaggerated impact upon virtual wards in their earliest days.
This is why it is important for the NHS to establish a well-rounded virtual ward, with a multidisciplinary team (MDT) to provide a broad scope of knowledge and clinical skill to ensure excellent care continues to be provided, if not improved upon.
Virtual ward technologies are a combination of hardware and software solutions that work to better enable healthcare professionals in their goal of healing people.
Hardware typically includes forms of home monitoring devices. These can be a hub, such as what The Access Group provides, but also plug-in sensors to check for movement when monitoring patients with mobility issues or Alzheimer’s for example, or perhaps wearable tech. This would include finger monitors for oxygen saturation and pulse, or blood pressure readers, or armbands to check the heart rate, fluctuations, and more.
Virtual ward software solutions play the link between the hardware and clinicians, but can also be an aid directly to these clinicians. Software can record, store, and communicate patient information – vitals or other records – between different healthcare services. Software can also help determine what sort of virtual ward care a patient needs, which staff are best suited or most available to assist, and even how to coordinate with other home visitation teams; useful in cases where a patient already receives domiciliary care.
Virtual wards are a new implemented care programme, acting as an extension of the hospital ward, but what impact do these virtual wards have? What are the benefits to patients? Are virtual wards financially viable?
It is important to assess the services provided in healthcare to ensure they are performing properly, within the realms of a budget and providing the excellent care required. Dissecting a virtual ward is no different and standards must be met, otherwise patients risk suffering.
Below is a quick video from Access giving an overview of what virtual wards are and how they function:
Everyone knows what a hospital ward is and what it does, but the advent of virtual wards has led to discussions in the media about what virtual wards are, why they matter, and whether hospital wards or virtual wards are better for patient care.
British news coverage initially suggested that virtual wards are a replacement for hospital wards. This inevitably led to public outcry and a degree of hostility towards the implementation of virtual wards, but the truth is that virtual wards are meant to be an extension of hospital care – aptly dubbed 'Hospital at Home'.
Virtual wards, also referred to as ‘Hospital at home’, are a way of providing care to patients - during the recovery process or as long-term support.
The rollout of virtual wards is being keenly pursued in 2023 in response to long hospital waiting times, especially those for A&E. Virtual wards are being established to move people out of hospital beds where feasible. Suppliers like The Access Group are providing solutions such as Access Assure to enable this remote monitoring through physical devices and integrated software.
Making the NHS greener is not a new objective, but NHS England is making a renewed push for a greener NHS. The goal is to make efficiency savings that can be put back into care provision, whilst also benefiting the environment through less pollution and less waste.
This means balancing business practices that will benefit the environment against those that won’t; only continuing with the necessary evils that a major healthcare organisation cannot avoid if it wants to continue to provide excellent care.
Digital inclusion might sound like a buzzword but for healthcare the importance of digital inclusion cannot be stressed enough. Modern technology is enhancing healthcare to be more effective but also more flexible and personal to the individual.
This is great – but not if the user can’t engage with this new approach. This poses a problem to the patient but also to the clinician, who has a duty to provide the very best care possible. Instances where a patient can’t use the best resources mean a workaround is needed, which can be costly in time and effort and possibly at the expense of other patients in need.
In this article we explore what digital inclusion is, what digital exclusion looks like, the impact on the NHS and the UK, and the benefits to be had by either empowering patients with the education to utilise digital tools or the support to help get them online and connected.
Using digital solutions and commissioning technology is just one of the ways councils and Local Authorities improve their local areas and work towards ‘net zero’ targets. Scientists have warned what will happen if governments and the public fail to take action.
The government in response have amended their initial target of reducing carbon emissions made in the Climate Change Act 2008 from 80% to 100% by 2050.
