CareLineLive Expands Partnership with Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust to Free Up Hospital Beds
Through Carelinelive, the NHS trust has introduced an innovative hospital discharge model amid the UK's "bed blocking" crisis, where many patients are unable to leave the hospital.
CareLineLive, a leading provider of home care management software, has announced a broadened partnership with Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (MSEFT) to free up beds that were otherwise occupied by patients awaiting discharge.
This partnership was formed in response to the growing problem of "bed blocking" in the UK, where patients fit to leave the hospital are waiting for their social care packages to be arranged. This leads to longer A&E waiting times, ambulance delays and exacerbates the bed blocking crisis.
In response to the Covid-19 crisis in 2021, MSEFT initially partnered with CareLineLive to digitise its operations, such as scheduling software and document management, and to help scale up its Bridging Service. This service provides short-term domiciliary care to patients leaving the hospital, allowing for a quicker and more efficient transition to more sustainable care packages. This effort resulted in over 11,000 saved bed days from April to November 2021, and another 11,500 saved bed days from April to December 2022.
Building on the success of the Bridging Service, the Trust launched the Southend Enhanced Discharge Service (SEDS) in June 2022. SEDS is a discharge-to-assess service that provides a full therapy-led hospital discharge assessment at home rather than in hospital as is traditional, enabling patients to leave the hospital sooner and recover more quickly with appropriate care at home.
From June to December 2022, this service alone resulted in 5,070 saved bed days. When combined with the Bridging Service, the total number of saved bed days was 16,570. The projected saving for the year April 2022-March 2023 is predicted to be around 22,000 bed days or 60 beds per day.
John Walter, General Manager of Integrated Care at MSEFT, stated: “CareLineLive has transformed our service by introducing cutting-edge technology. It is a remarkable electronic record solution for remote patient care in the community, allowing staff to perform their tasks from a distance, document remotely, and schedule appointments electronically. These capabilities have led to increased efficiency, capacity, and a fresh perspective on patient care.
CareLineLive is the ideal solution for those seeking to streamline their services, future-proof their operations, and improve patient care. The software makes services more sustainable, compliant with GDPR regulations, and protects against data issues. It is flexible and operates in real-time, providing an always-up-to-date overview of each patient's status.”
Josh Hough, Founder, and Managing Director at CareLineLive added: “We are honoured to collaborate with MSEFT in providing essential care to patients in need and freeing up hospital beds. Our recent investigation, through a freedom of information request, uncovered that just 16 out of 33 Integrated Care Boards of England and Wales had a Bridging Service and these are mainly offering re-ablement services instead of a domiciliary care bridging service. Our goal is to inspire the widespread adoption of domiciliary care bridging services by NHS Trusts nationwide, reducing the pressure on hospital bed resources.”
For further information on CareLineLive, please visit www.carelinelive.com
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CareLineLive
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