Delivering real time data to the HSCN to improve patient outcomes

Background

There are estimated to be over 10,000 avoidable in-hospital deaths in the UK each year alone(1). Improved monitoring and recognition of patients’ vital signs and earlier intervention is widely recognised as a key step to prevent avoidable mortality.

To address this, Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS Foundation Trust has implemented a paper based “Early Warning” system in the hospital. This aimed to recognise and monitor deteriorating patients’ vital signs by scoring their results. The Trust quickly realised the limitations of a paper based approach. Patient charts weren’t immediately available and it took time to share the data with clinicians. Also legibility of notes was sporadic and the calculation of scores frequently produced errors.

Very quickly, the Trust determined that in order to be able to swiftly recognise early warning signals, receive data in real-time, prioritise patient care and improve patient safety, an electronic solution would be needed. The Trust engaged with Sensyne Health to build a digital solution. Sensyne’s key aim is to combine clinical artificial intelligence technology and ethically sourced, anonymised patient data, helping people everywhere get better care.

Originally, the SEND™ application had been hosted by an incumbent supplier, however, their ability to scale the software was being impeded, due to the limitations associated with hosting on physical tin. Without a connectivity solution, it was very difficult to implement their plans. A fresh perspective was needed.

Sensyne identified the need to move to a cloud based platform to allow them to harness the scalability and elasticity of a cloud built application. Crucial to their success, they needed SEND™ to connect consumers of the application within NHS Trusts to the Health and Social Care Network (HSCN). This enables them to be able to securely send the patient data for monitoring. Their incumbent supplier lacked HSCN connectivity and associated security requirements.

Cloud Sensyne chose Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to migrate the solution to. However, they needed to fix the HSCN connectivity piece. Microsoft called upon us (as part of the Microsoft Partner Network) to offer a potential solution.

The Challenge

• Reduce emergency situations and improve patient outcomes

• Improve monitoring and recognition of patients’ vital signs in real-time

• Unable to connect to the HSCN to securely send patient data

The Solution

• Sensyne’s SEND™ application for logging of patient data in real-time

• Host SEND™ in Microsoft Azure for scalability and elasticity in the cloud

• Connectivity solution from Cloud Gateway to send patient data securely to the HSCN

The Impact

• Equivalent of 3.5 full-time nurses’ time delivered back to the hospital every 24 hours

• Clinical care of over 200,000 patients has been enhanced

• Cardiac arrests and other emergency situations reduced, saving patients’ lives

In detail

Together with Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS Trust, Sensyne Health developed a web-based software application – The System for Electronic Notification and Documentation (SEND™). The software allows health professionals to monitor patient health within medical facilities, via tablets and bedside devices which display early warning scores for clinicians.

As well as in-hospital monitoring, the software allows patients to enter their own data into mobile applications for remote monitoring and improved patient safety outside of the Trust’s facilities.

Three key criteria for the solution needed to be met:

• Secure cloud connectivity – to reach the application built in Azure

• HSCN accreditation and connectivity – to reach consumers on HSCN

• Speed to market – fast deployment to meet consumer demand

As experts in cloud connectivity and networking disciplines, we were able to cut through the complexity of the task at hand, working closely with Sensyne’s engineering teams to provision and test before launch.

Our hybrid cloud connectivity PaaS solution, PRISM, was able to provide the secure HSCN connectivity plus reach their application in Azure via private connections in UK data centres – essential for the project’s success and to enable a much faster time to market. PRISM also facilitates secure internet connectivity, something Sensyne had identified as a need for future phases of development, on a global scale.

Results

The application is now able to provide a real-time overview of patient data and consumers of the application can connect to it via the HSCN. Data and results are displayed in a simple and clear format so that patients and their families can easily understand.

Patient records are immediately available to clinicians, remote consultants, the nursing station in the Trust’s facilities and via remote monitoring, rather than only being accessible at the bedside. Clinicians are able to prioritise patients based on real-time results and a complete health records, which allows them to manage their time more effectively. Patients are benefiting from immediate identification of their condition and vital signs are being shared and monitored as part of normal clinical care, rather than in an emergency situation.

To date, 33 million observations have been recorded using SEND™, with a 3 minute time saving per observation – and that’s just in documentation time.

This has lowered nursing workload as well as improved documentation quality. The time saved has released the equivalent of 3.5 full-time nurses back to the hospital in every 24 hour period. Hospital nurses are able to spend more time providing care to patients instead of doing administrative tasks.

We offer Sensyne a future-proof solution enabling further development in the cloud. The speed of deployment and cost effectiveness means that Sensyne can invest these savings in to further software and product development which will enable huge increases in improved patient outcomes like those already seen. This enables Sensyne’s to realise their core company value.