West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust harnessing digital technology to manage elective surgical backlog
Learn how West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust took advantage of digital technology and solutions to streamline and transform their backlog in elective surgical waiting lists, allowing the Trust to take active measures in reducing waiting list numbers.
CASE STUDYÂ
Overview
West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust provides acute healthcare services to a core catchment population of approximately half a million people and sees nearly a million patients each year across 3 sites: Watford General Hospital (WGH), St Albans City Hospital (SACH) and Hemel Hempstead Hospital (HHH).
Across the three sites, the trust has over 620 beds, and 16 operating theatres as well as outpatient and diagnostic services in excess of 70,000 outpatient appointments.
The Trust, like many others, was faced with the challenge of recovering elective care, including managing an ever-increasing number of patients on existing waiting lists as a result of a backlog of cases. The Trust approached the team at Open Medical to help with the digital transformation and streamlining of their elective surgical pathways.
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THE CHALLENGE
The Trust needed a robust solution to allow the respective teams to effectively manage the waiting list backlog.
Difficulty tracking patients along with their entire elective care surgical pathway including preoperative assessment, and documenting which procedures were being further delayed or cancelled.
The Trust required a fully governed means of recording patients’ Covid-19 surgical risk assessment, as well as regular reviews of delayed patients to ensure they were not coming to harm.
The implementation of a digital platform for end-to-end surgical workflows was to ensure that the Trust could continue to provide a high quality, safe and effective service in the new post-pandemic world.
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