Home>Case studies>Healthcare

Sensyne /
Oxford University Hospitals

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust needed real-time patient vital signs monitoring connected to the HSCN – and Microsoft called on Cloud Gateway, as part of their partner network, to provide it. The result: cardiac arrests reduced by up to 63%, care enhanced for over 200,000 patients, and the equivalent of 3.5 full-time nurses’ time returned to the hospital every 24 hours.

Care enhanced for over 200,000 patients -
HSCN connectivity for real-time vital signs monitoring at Oxford University Hospitals

0 %

of cardiac arrests reduced.

One of the most amazing things that I have had the pleasure of being involved in.

Senior Nurse

Churchill Hospital, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The challenge

There are over 10,000 avoidable in-hospital deaths in the UK each year. Improved monitoring of patient vital signs and earlier intervention is widely recognised as a key step to prevent avoidable mortality.

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had implemented a paper-based Early Warning system to recognise deteriorating patients. The limitations were quickly apparent: patient charts were not immediately available, sharing data with clinicians took time, legibility was inconsistent, and score calculations frequently produced errors.

Together with Sensyne Health, the Trust developed the System for Electronic Notification and Documentation (SEND) – a web-based application that lets clinicians monitor patient health via tablets and bedside devices.

SEND had originally been hosted by an incumbent supplier whose physical infrastructure could not scale, and which lacked HSCN connectivity and the associated security requirements. To connect consumers of the application within NHS Trusts and securely send patient data, three criteria had to be met simultaneously: secure cloud connectivity to reach the application built in Azure; HSCN accreditation and connectivity to reach NHS consumers; and speed to market.

What we did

Sensyne chose Microsoft Azure for the platform migration. Microsoft called on Cloud Gateway – part of the Microsoft Partner Network – to deliver the HSCN connectivity layer.

We provided secure HSCN connectivity, with reach to the SEND application in Azure via private connections in UK data centres, enabling a much faster time to market. The platform also facilitated secure internet connectivity, supporting Sensyne’s plans for future development on a global scale.

The impact

With Cloud Gateway’s HSCN connectivity in place, Sensyne’s SEND platform was able to connect consumers within NHS Trusts and transfer patient data securely – delivering the following outcomes at Oxford University Hospitals:

Cardiac arrests reduced by up to 63% in two NHS Trust hospitals
Clinical care of over 200,000 patients enhanced
The equivalent of 3.5 full-time nurses’ time returned to the hospital every 24 hours
33 million patient observations recorded using SEND
30% reduction in time required to undertake a set of vital signs observations