Maintaining service capacity and continuity during the COVID-19 crisis
The short-term assessment, rehabilitation and reablement service (STARRS) at London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust runs 365 days a year, has approximately 90 staff, and supports 9,000 patients annually.
STARRS’ Rapid Response team treats patients at home that might otherwise have to be admitted to hospital, whilst the Early Supported Discharge Team allows patients to be discharged earlier with clinical support at home.
Background
Like many other NHS organisations, a portion of STARRS’ staff needed to shield or self-isolate during the COVID-19 pandemic, putting the service’s capacity at risk.
Additionally, social distancing measures were put in place to keep staff safe at work.
Solution
Working with Infinity Health, the STARRS service has been able to maintain service levels and social distancing during COVID-19 in a way that wouldn’t have previously been possible.
With the Infinity platform, staff unable to go into the hospital or visit patients in their homes because of their need to shield or isolate could still see and edit patient and task details from off-site. This meant they could continue working, helping to mitigate the impact of the virus on staffing levels.
Impact
Service levels maintained
Clinical time saved and released to care
Social distancing maintained
“Because I am shielding, I haven’t been able to go into the hospital or visit patients in their homes during the COVID-19 crisis. However, with Infinity, I have been able to access the team’s task list, make changes, and monitor their activity from home. I wouldn’t have been able to do this so easily before.”
— Aoife Lenihan
Team Leader, Nurse, Rapid Response Team
For staff visiting patients in their homes, information was available on Infinity wherever they were. As a result, two members of staff opted to attend the handover virtually via video call, reducing their combined weekly number of journeys by 14 and saving 10.5 hours a week. With the clinical time released as a result, these staff could each see 1-2 extra patients per day. This would amount to 365-730 additional patients per year – an increase of up to 60%, which could be extended to the entire service.
Additionally, Infinity enabled STARRS staff to maintain social distancing throughout the pandemic. Rather than having to be on-site for handover, and risk exposure to COVID-19, they can attend virtually and go to visits directly. This not only enabled safe social distancing at work, but has also saved a significant number of journeys to the hospital, releasing time to care.
“During COVID-19, it wouldn’t have been possible to maintain social distancing without Infinity. We could do handover on a conference call, whilst using Infinity to access patient and task details from home. It has been very very helpful.”
— Smita Kaushal
Senior Physiotherapist, Rapid Response Team