Early Warning Score reduces incidence of serious events in general ward
Topics
At a glance
Partner Ysbyty Gwynedd, the General Hospital in Bangor, Wales
Challenge
Solution Philips IntelliVue MP5SC spot check patient monitor and IntelliVue Guardian early warning scoring
Results1
Share on social media
Nurses on general wards at Ysbyty Gwynedd, the General Hospital in Bangor, faced the same pressures felt by general ward staff in many hospitals: manual patient health audits took up a lot of their time, and the growing number of hospitalized patients with multiple chronic conditions added to that strain.
Thanks to Philips monitoring and notification systems, nurses at Ysbyty Gwynedd are now able to detect patient deterioration much quicker. There has been a reduction in serious events by 35%1, and a cardiac arrest reduction of more than 86%.1
Ysbyty Gwynedd, is part of the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board which is the largest health organization in Wales, providing a full range of primary, community, mental health and acute hospital services for a population of around 678,000 people across North Wales.
"Philips General Ward Solutions help us to deliver timely care that is matched to patient needs."
Dr. Chris Subbe Consultant in Acute, Respiratory and Intensive Care Medicine Ysbyty Gwynedd, the General Hospital in Bangor
The solution
“When you come onto the ward at the start of your shift, you can now tell within a fraction of a minute who’s sick. And you can then focus your attention on the patients who need it the most at that moment.” Dr Chris Subbe has been a Consultant in Acute, Respiratory and Intensive Care Medicine at Ysbyty Gwynedd since 2011. He has been very impressed with results that he believes are a direct effect of the automated Early Warning Score provided by newly implemented Philips monitoring systems. Manual patient health audits used to be time-consuming, putting a strain on general ward staff. Nurses need to juggle a range of responsibilities: from quality of care to compliance with hospital standards. Information about the patient’s health was scattered across various records, making it even harder for nurses to focus their attention and take the right actions.
With the implementation of Philips General Ward Solutions, it is now much easier for nurses at Ysbyty Gwynedd to quickly identify deteriorating patients and make sure they get the right care. All patient vital signs are automatically captured in one place to provide an Early Warning Score (EWS).
"Philips uses a philosophy of care with the Early Warning Score that was already familiar to our teams, and the workflow was modeled on what we would normally do."
Consultant in Acute, Respiratory and Intensive Care Medicine Ysbyty Gwynedd, the General Hospital in Bangor
Dr. Chris Subbe
As Dr Subbe explains, if the EWS is raised then it prompts you talk to someone and at the same time the signal goes out to our rapid response team, so other doctors in the hospital know there is something happening on a particular ward.” The transition to the new way of working was minimally disruptive, Dr Subbe says. “Philips uses a philosophy of care with the Early Warning Score that was already familiar to our people, and the workflow was modeled on what we would normally do.” Because nurses no longer need to manually perform routine patient health audits, there’s a smaller risk of human error. Nurses can now focus on what they were trained to do: caring for patients. The team at Ysbyty Gwynedd have been very satisfied with the working relationship with Philips from the beginning of the project. Assistant Director of Informatics, Dylan Williams: “Philips had a clear objective and a clear scope of works. They knew exactly what they wanted from us but they also listened to what we required and what we needed to get our infrastructure working well. It just worked very, very effectively.”
Looking forward
Sources: 1. Subbe CP, Duller B, Bellomo R. Effect of an automated notification system for deteriorating ward patients on clinical outcomes. Crit Care. 2017 Mar 14;21(1):52. Results are specific to the institution where they are obtained and may not reflect the results achievable at other institutions.
By removing manual processes within hospitals and providing integrated solutions, we are demonstrating our commitment to seamless care and providing better patient outcomes. Together we are working with our partners to support the integration of the healthcare systems, by providing innovative connected technology to seamlessly share data within the hospital environment.
Share on social media
