Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust

Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust Partners with Zebra Technologies and Dakota Healthcare for Efficient Patient Bedside Observations

Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust provides a wide range of clinical care, which includes general acute and emergency services to approximately 225,000 people across Wiltshire, Dorset and Hampshire.

Challenge

Dakota Healthcare has been working with Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust since the Trust was named as a Scan4Safety early implementer site in 2015; it previously deployed Zebra HC100 Wristband Printers. Indeed Dakota works with all six Scan4Safety sites to improve efficiencies and patient safety and has also been a Zebra partner since company inception in 2007.

Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust had developed its own in-house patient bedside electronic observations (E-Obs) application (POET) to replace the paper-based charts it previously used; it needed to equip its nursing staff with a high performance, robust, healthcare-specific mobile computer to run the application. It was essential that the device be enterprise grade, multifunctional, future-proof and be backed up by excellent support and services, to ensure ongoing security as well as ease of integration and management. 

Mark Gilkes, Mobile Working Consultant at Dakota Healthcare, explains how Dakota helped the Trust select the best device for its requirements: “Our consultative approach and engagement with all the key stakeholders, along with the direct support we have received from Zebra, has resulted in the largest UK deployment to date of Zebra’s TC51-HCs, supported by Zebra OneCare Managed Device Services.” Indeed the Dakota Healthcare team, in collaboration with Zebra, worked closely with Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust, providing ongoing, responsive support and training throughout the project
deployment, supplying loan units to evaluate and pre-stage and assisting in on-site configuration and staging via Zebra’s StageNow solution prior to roll-out.

Solution

Via POET running on the TC51-HCs, nurses are alerted when patient observations need to be taken; they scan the patient wristband to check the patient identity and take the patient’s blood pressure and temperature, for example, and enter this data into POET, which in turn connects into the Trust’s EPR and Patient Administration System (PAS). POET’s key functionality includes a sophisticated cascading escalation; this flags patients with deteriorating vital signs, so nurses can contact the appropriate consultant in order for a ‘recognise and rescue’ plan to be put in place.

The Trust is utilising numerous aspects of the Zebra Mobility DNA suite, available as part of its Zebra OneCare Managed Device Service. Firstly, Zebra Lifeguard provides OS upgrades, extended OS security support up to 5 years, well beyond the shorter life cycle of consumer devices, and regular security updates; this was a key differentiator, as the Trust updates its devices on a monthly basis, to ensure security of patient details.

Secondly, following the initial staging, the Trust will continue to use Zebra’s StageNow Android Device Staging Solution for any application upgrades, intended usage locking, OS upgrades and to push out security patches, for example. The Trust also used Zebra’s Enterprise Browser to configure the barcode reader in POET, to have the application correctly configured to call the scanner at the right time for barcode capture.

Finally, Zebra’s Workforce Connect PTT and Text Messaging Facility will be a key feature in the next stage of the POET rollout to enable nurses to call or message the relevant consultant from the bedside at the push of a button; this will introduce huge efficiencies and time savings versus the current process, where the nurse has to return to the nurses’ station to page the consultant and await a call back.

Result

Recording patient observations electronically has reduced paperwork for nurses, increased data accuracy and efficiency, and gives nurses all the real-time information they need to be able to identify and respond to deteriorating patients and escalate to the relevant clinician and clinical team immediately.

Moreover, looking to the long term, the Trust is utilising the wider Zebra solution, which comprises so much more than a device, to great value. The Zebra support and service ensures Salisbury has invested in a long-term, future-proof solution, with a low long-term TCO. And the future potential for the multifunctional TC51-HC is huge: Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust plans to automate further processes onto Zebra’s TC51-HC, such as blood tracking (via Zebra partner MSoft’s Blood360 application); indeed, the flexibility to run so many different solutions and applications simultaneously on the TC51-HC, with the support to ensure applications can run seamlessly alongside each other, was key in the Trust’s decision to partner with Zebra and Dakota.

“Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust is one of six Scan4Safety demonstrator sites across England. We developed POET in line with our ongoing strategy to move towards a digitalised patient healthcare record, facilitating timely escalation; and we have subsequently equipped our nurses with reliable, healthcare-specific mobile devices to enter vital signs data electronically at the patient bedside.”

Paula Agombar, IT Clinical Project Manager, Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust