GDE selects Nervecentre mobile solutions to power it to HIMSS level 7

Acute Global Digital Exemplar (GDE) Luton & Dunstable University Hospital NHS Trust (L&D) has selected Nervecentre Software as a key partner to help it meet its strategic goal of HIMSS level 7 status.

HIMSS level 7 – the hallmark of a paperless hospital – is the most advanced stage of the EMRAM digital maturity model, but to date just three Trusts in England have reached it.

L&D, one of only 16 digitally advanced trusts in NHS England’s GDE programme, will leverage Nervecentre’s ‘next generation’ mobile solutions through a wide-ranging deployment designed not only to accelerate its journey to paperless, but also to strengthen patient safety and patient flow.

The large-scale implementation, which will be rolled out incrementally as part of a long-term partnership agreement, has already begun with the successful introduction of Nervecentre electronic observations across its wards, to empower faster, safer and more efficient clinically-led decision-making.

The Trust will then deploy the following Nervecentre modules; Patient Safety: Handover & Clinical Noting, Hospital at Night/OOH care, Assessments, Fluid Balance, Sepsis e-Screening, AKI and Clinical Photography; Patient Flow: Command and Control, Bed Management and Portering; Paperless: Care Plans, Case Notes and Clinical Correspondence.

Fundamentally, the integrated tools enable clinicians to capture information at the patient’s bedside. This information – accessible ‘anytime, anywhere’ via mobile devices – can be shared with relevant colleagues across the hospital, strengthening the trust’s ability to recognise and respond to deteriorating patients and giving operational teams real-time visibility of activities that influence patient flow.

Philippa Graves, Chief Information Officer, Luton & Dunstable University Hospital NHS Trust, said: “Our partnership with Nervecentre is an important milestone in the implementation of our GDE plan. The Trust has always believed that good technology is an essential enabler of high quality care, but our journey to a paper free environment – HIMSS level 7 – requires us to strengthen clinical engagement to ensure we improve our clinical platforms in ways that are clinically relevant for front-line staff. Nervecentre’s innovative mobile tools are already proven to be well adopted by clinicians in complex and dynamic hospital settings. Moreover, their clinically-led approach to the development of new solutions is a perfect fit with the L&D culture that will help us ensure we give our staff the tools and technologies that empower safe, high-quality paperless care.”

Luton and Dunstable was among the first wave of Acute GDEs announced by NHS England in September 2016. Twelve months’ later, Bedford Hospital NHS Trust was named as its Fast Follower. The Trust works hard to ensure that new technologies already adopted at L&D can be deployed faster and more efficiently at Bedford.

Paul Volkaerts, Founder and CEO, Nervecentre Software, said: “This is another exciting landmark in the growth of Nervecentre, continuing our recent trend for partnering with trusts from the GDE programme. Luton & Dunstable is widely recognised as an innovative Trust that puts digital technology at the forefront of high quality patient care. It says much about the effectiveness of our next generation tools that such a progressive organisation has chosen to put them at the heart of its plans to reach HIMSS Level 7. In addition to supporting the journey to paperless, our partnership will help us bring mobility, agility and connectivity to L&D, empowering clinical and operational teams with real-time data that facilitates safe, timely care. We look forward to working closely with them to co-create the mobile innovations of tomorrow.”