Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is utilising our mobile clinical photography

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is utilising our mobile clinical photography to capture, store and share images of patients with pressure ulcers.

The use of mobile photography to confirm the classification of a pressure ulcer wound has resulted in the trust seeing a reduction in the validation time (from three days to within 24 hours) and implementation time of appropriate treatment.

The pilot was first implemented at The Northumbria hospital and was trialled on more than 100 patients before now being introduced to a further two clinical environments.

Over the past year, almost 4,000 cases were received by the trust in relation to pressure ulcers. Previously the trust had used a manual process to classify and record assessments, on-going treatment and treatment evaluation of pressure ulcers. There was a further requirement for the trust’s tissue viability team to visually validate all pressure area damage of category 2 or above, resulting in a small team spending long periods of time travelling between the trust’s hospital sites.

As quoted in Health Tech News (HTN) Julie Appleby, nurse specialist and training team lead, said:

“We’re always looking at ways we can make the care we provide quicker, safer and more efficient. Technology is playing a huge part in allowing us to do this and we are very pleased with the results this project has achieved so far. Moving forward we are looking to roll this out in more wards and sites across our trust, which will help us improve the care we provide our patients and free up valuable time for our staff on the ward.”

“The image quality and ability to share information easily have led to a number of teams expressing a desire to use the technology for wound care. We will continue to train and provide assistance to the teams to improve image capture and categorisation of pressure damage moving forward to make sure the care we provide is as safe and efficient as it can be.”

More about our Solution

Nervecentre Software has launched a mobile clinical photography solution for nurses and doctors in hospitals. Fully integrated directly into the patient record, the mobile software is completely secure, compliant with clinical and information governance.

The clinical photography solution from Nervecentre only allows photos to be captured within the patient record and then securely stores them immediately after they have been taken. The photos are efficiently organised and categorised in an intuitive photo library on the chosen patient’s record.

Use of clinical photography in hospitals has a variety of important uses to assist in the diagnosis and monitoring of wounds. Clinical photography also supports NICE guidelines (CG179) for assessment and management of pressure ulcers. Speciality referrals including burns plastics tissue viability will be fast-tracked and remotely accessible with the use of the digital photography care record.  An additional key benefit of clinical photography is for evidence to support patient incidents or litigation.