Virtual wards are the future of healthcare, designed to allow for greater patient independence, a faster discharge, and to help avoid any health deterioration due to an extended stay on a hospital ward.
With modern medicine improving life expectancy, we're ourselves part of an ageing population; witnessing in real-time how science is combating issues like cancer, dementia, heart disease, and so much more. This means more demand for healthcare than ever.
Hospitals have a myriad of difficulties to overcome, but the virtual ward is now more than a concept. Case studies of NHS virtual wards have shown they help to relieve demand for hospital beds, reduce overcrowding, and improve the overall patient experience.
In this article we answer what is a virtual ward, what is a ward, and how a virtual hospital ward differs from the traditional approach. We also expand upon NHS virtual wards and virtual ward pathways; how do they fit into the existing care flow from diagnosis to treatment?
Healthcare CRM refers to customer relationship management in healthcare. Maintaining good relationships with patients and clients across the health and care spectrum is important to help effect the change needed to ensure recovery or wellbeing in general, and to preserve business operations to support healthcare operations.
This makes it a little tricky for software solutions: handling both the patient side and the business side of care operations are two very different requirements. It may even be that you need two interoperable solutions to handle each side; a health CRM and an EHR solution.
Software solutions are the best way to handle the management process without burdening staff with undue amounts of administrative work, but it’s our belief that many organisations aren’t able to differentiate between healthcare CRM and electronic health records (EHR) and to decide which they need. This is why we have an official guide about Why Electronic Patient Record (EPR) systems aren’t just for hospitals, to help private or voluntary care organisations understand the market.
In this article we will explore that market and guide you towards the best solution for you – whether that’s a healthcare CRM or an EPR. We’ll explore what CRMs do, covering the definition of CRM in healthcare, before moving on to patient relationships, the benefits of CRM, and the specific impact CRM can have on mental health care. We will then conclude with the solutions themselves; what do they do, how do they differ, can they integrate with your existing software, and most importantly which will allow you to make better decisions for staff and patients, so that you can deliver better service.
What is CRM in healthcare?
To pinpoint the advantages or disadvantages of electronic medical records and the software solutions that enable them, you first need to know what they are.
Electronic medical records are digitised versions of patient notes and personal details, with information such as demographics and psychographics. These records are managed through electronic patient records (EPR) software – sometimes called electronic health records (EHR).
You might be wondering why electronic medical records are such a talking point. The NHS is pushing for trusts across England – and leaning on devolved NHS partners elsewhere in the UK – to onboard these solutions in all hospitals as a way to optimise the administrative and data processes involved in managing patient care.
In this article we will explore the impact of electronic records on the quality of care and any supporting evidence, before discussing the benefits and the challenges that face healthcare professionals and their organisations.
Do electronic medical records improve quality of care?
Knowing how to start a supported living business is important for the provision of supported accommodation. Many homes available to rent aren’t suitable for people with disabilities or the elderly, which is why special provision must be made for them.
Without them people are unable to enjoy independence and the freedoms they deserve, which is why setting up supported living accommodation can be such a positive business pursuit. This isn’t ignoring the fact that it’s a business venture, and as such there are ways to balance benevolence and good deeds with financial sustainability.
In this article we cover that balance – explaining what a supported living business is, how to set up supported living accommodation, the requirements surrounding housing for people with disabilities, and crucially how technology can benefit supported living businesses. This last part is obviously where our expertise at Access comes into play, but it’s also an interesting insight into the nature of modern health and care tech, and how it’s easier than ever to provide a high-quality service.
Supported Living Business
To understand patient engagement strategies, we first must define what a patient engagement strategy is – or at least what its purpose is.
A patient engagement strategy is a plan of action to further improve patient engagement with the healthcare provider and their own care. Research has shown that better patient engagement leads to better care outcomes, and this is the main purpose of any healthcare provider – to provide the best care possible.
Patient activation (how proactive a patient is with their own care) is generally fairly low, but the traditional doctor-patient relationship is being altered slowly but surely. Now the process is much more collaborative and a conversation, with younger generations especially – thanks to modern technology – taking a greater interest in their healthcare.
More software applications are being developed too; to avoid inequality in care by being easy to learn and easy to use by those who may lack the digital literacy of the younger generations, thus being inclusive and giving everyone the opportunity to be part of their care journey and to feel more involved.
In this article we will be exploring the patient experience, general strategies for engagement, how these tactics can be used within healthcare specifically, and how healthcare organisations can build upon this to develop a framework for future rollouts of patient engagement strategies.
The UK domiciliary care market is continuing to grow year on year. In 2020 it was recorded that over 810,000 people were receiving homecare across the UK and it is clear that number is continuing to rise rapidly.
In fact, The Department of Health and Social Care have predicted that 57% more adults aged 65 and over in England will require homecare in 2038 compared to 2018.
As the demand keeps increasing so does the pressure on care providers to arrange and deliver the care and support individuals require to delay future care needs, help reduce discharge delays, and allow individuals to remain as independent in their own homes for as long as possible.
In order to reach this demand successfully, local authorities need to overcome the home care challenges which care providers, caregivers, care workers, and the individuals themselves have to deal with.
But what are the challenges that are facing the domiciliary care market and how can they be avoided or overcome?
This article will review what domiciliary care is, the challenges facing the market and how best to overcome them with technology, so local authorities can be better prepared for the demand now and in the future to ensure the best quality and continuity of care is always delivered.
Scientific advances have provided us with wearable technology for autism, helping clinicians to recognise that there’s more to be gained by personalising care and understanding that conditions or ailments may have unique elements from person to person. The same can be said for people with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
Thanks to better medical knowledge, autism is far more identifiable amongst children, meaning better support through the developmental years. There’s still much to be done though, and the biggest research breakthroughs are so recent that many millennials – people aged 30s to early 40s – are finally being diagnosed as autistic or with other neurodivergent conditions. This will provide answers they have been longing for, but also will open them up to the reality that perhaps they need more support in managing day-to-day life and their wellbeing. This is where wearable devices come in as assistive technology.
In this article we will define autism and touch upon some of the surrounding context, before exploring wearable technology for autism. We will showcase autism wearables and provide a ‘best of’ list of impactful technologies or gadgets; all in the hope of helping improve the quality of life for someone with ASD or assisting loved ones and carers working with autistic individuals.
What is Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD)?
The NHS Long Term Plan is a 10-year strategy to make sure that the NHS keeps ‘levelling up’ and maintains or improves its care output for the UK population. As part of this plan we are seeing targets set for social prescribing; an approach to care that can fit in to the NHS Long Term Plan and help the NHS to better engage with patients.
By offering a community-level support system for day-to-day life, social prescribing can support the NHS by preventing injury, illness, or the deterioration of conditions in many cases. This isn’t a new approach, but holistic care often has to take a backseat, and that needs to change if the NHS is to be the best modern healthcare service in the world.
In this article we’ll detail the specifics of what social prescribing and what the NHS Long Term Plan are, as well as their importance due to the benefits to be had by the UK public. We will also highlight how digitisation comes into play, and how modern software solutions are now very capable of enabling social prescribing to support the NHS – including our very own Access Elemental social prescribing solution.
The NHS Digital Capability Framework (DCF) is a list of requirements specifying what acute, community, mental health, ambulance and maternity providers must do in order to match the NHS England digital strategy and achieve digital maturity.
The NHS Minimum Digital Foundations are now termed the Digital Capabilities Framework and are still broadly in line with the HIMSS EMRAM level 5 framework. The requirement for every Trust to have an EPR as a pre-requisite and each EPR to meet the standards set out in the Core capabilities to facilitate the NHS to meet the Core digital capability for the Government’s levelling up agenda.
Achieving the Digital Capability Framework is a necessary step in the evolution of NHS Trusts and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs). Minimum digital foundations are the fundamental pieces of the jigsaw. NHS England’s goal is to build on the technology pre-requisites and expand to become a nationally connected healthcare ecosystem. The goal is ensuring patient engagement is at the heart of care provision, irrespective of the systems in use by that Trust. The big challenge though is that there are over 100 Core requirements within the DCF, and success means demonstrating these capabilities within each organisation.
In this article we will discuss Frontline Digitisation further, what the Digital Capabilities Framework looks like, and the benefits and challenges of digitisation. We’ll also look at the technology available to support the NHS in their mission to modernise care delivery, with specific focus on the crucial role electronic patient records (EPRs) have to play.
NHS Frontline Digitisation
Virtual wards are a hot topic in modern healthcare, with the UK government keen to roll out these alternative care opportunities across NHS trusts in England and beyond. NHS Scotland already has Hospital at Home in place, and the analysis of the results of these wards is that they can be very beneficial to care outcomes when used appropriately and for suitable patients.
In 2022, NHS England (NHSE) stated there will be a “…a two-year funded transformation programme to support the development of virtual wards, operating to standardised clinical models, across every area of England.”
In addition to this, “ICSs have been asked to deliver virtual ward capacity equivalent to 40 to 50 virtual ward ‘beds’ per 100,000 population (equivalent to the delivery of up to 24,000 virtual ward beds), by December 2023.”
At The Access Group we’re strong advocates of virtual wards. The virtual ward model of care is an important part of implementing a virtual ward, so in this article we will explain the basics – such as what virtual wards are – as well as moving onto models of care, the implementation and operation of virtual wards, and how our software solutions can help the NHS succeed.
