All nursing and care homes on the Isle of Wight are being given equipment and training to monitor key observations remotely and reduce the need for people to go in and out of care homes.
The Technology Enabled Care (TEC) team at St Mary’s Hospital have pulled out all the stops and accelerated the rollout of telehealth monitoring to try and reduce the risk of transmission of COVID 19 to our most vulnerable island residents.
The monitoring kits, which combine tablet computers with a suite of devices that monitor blood pressure, temperature, pulse, respiration and blood oxygen levels, are an important step to enable more care to happen remotely, automatically alerting healthcare professionals to people who need their support and reducing the movement of residents and health professionals in and out of the homes.
Isle of Wight NHS Trust Telehealth Lead and former paramedic, Brian Martin said:
“We have been introducing remote telehealth monitoring and working alongside a number of our local NHS services for some time now and the approach we have taken with technology has given us the opportunity to support care home staff and residents now at such a crucial time.
“Not only does the technology assist the current challenges we face with Coronavirus and the need for less face to face contact and movement of people in the community but it has also shown that through better monitoring we can be more informed about the improvement or deterioration of a person’s health and work with them to make more accurate and timely decisions about their healthcare needs.”
Teleswallowing has been successfully trialled by Speech and Language Therapists on the Island. Therapists are able to talk to people by using an electronic tablet which has not only reduced waiting times but also the need for people to travel and has made better use of therapist time.
Over the next 2 weeks the TEC team will be testing the equipment and providing training care home managers and other staff using the Attend Anywhere video conferencing technology – which is also being rolled out across the Island.
Tile House in Shanklin was one of the first homes to pilot the new technology. Laura Simpson, said:
“It has been fantastic. It has empowered our staff and supported with early diagnoses, medication reviews and in some cases it has managed to stop hospital admissions. We simply wouldn’t be without it now.”
The combination of the new devices and Attend Anywhere software will enable GPs, hospital doctors and other health professionals to have virtual consultations with patients, avoiding the need for face-to-face appointments.
A couple of things not in the article that may be of interest:
– The island leads the country in its integration of technology and emergency services.
– The telehealth kit is made by an island company which has worked closely with Brian and his team to develop it.
– Although pioneered on the island, the same kit is also being used by several NHS regions and is in care homes across the country where it has already saved lives and will hopefully help to save many more.
– Bob Seely has offered to help unblock customs delays with the import of instruments needed to make more kits (Still waiting for that callback Bob)
I think this is great idea and should be available for all care homes as they seem to have been forgotten about they also do a fantastic job for elderley patients and they are not getting same treatment as NHS staff more needs to be done for care homes too in this crisis of covid 19 please help them
Many NHS regions were already using the system and are now following the island’s lead and scaling up the deployment of telehealth systems to as many of their care homes as they can.
As with the Isle of Wight they are all exploring and implementing innovative solutions to ensure that the most vulnerable can remain safely isolated.
(I work for the company that makes the blue box kits and we have seen a massive upsurge in demand.)
I am a nurse in a care home and feel totally disgruntled at the amount of media on NHS frontline workers, although i agree they will see and deal with alot of patients. However, we as a care home have fewer staff and no facilities like ventilators,oxygen and respirators and when this virus hits us we will have to watch our “family” sadly pass away unable to give them the same care as hospitals. The NHS have requested care homes take patients so they can have beds for covid 19 patients only, yet dont realise the pressure we are already under. We have patients with dementia and its impossible to isolate them so we do our best to reduce the risk of spreading this virus. We should not put our residents as collateral damage but instead provide them with care,empathy and dignity. All care home staff are working round the clock and would appreciate the same recognition as the NHS.
Sounds brilliant.
I am proud that have trained at St Mary’s Hospital in the 70’s Excellent training. I am still fully active, working in Nursing Homes. I will share this information with them. Keep up the good work.