Aneurin Bevan Fast-Tracks E-Observations Deployment

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board has gone live with the electronic recording of patient vital signs across its seven main hospital sites, including the Royal Gwent in Newport, Nevill Hall in Abergavenny, Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr in Caerphilly County and the new Grange University Hospital in Cwmbran. 

Staff across the health board’s adult wards are now recording patients’ vital signs onto iPad Minis and iPads, instead of using paper charts kept at the end of their beds.  This accelerated deployment took place during the Covid-19 pandemic and has meant important clinical information is now available to view by doctors and nurses away from the bedside, reducing the need for repeated changes in PPE.  Having started as a small pilot, the service is now live in 90 wards.  

The new CareFlow electronic observation system is also expected to cut the amount of time it takes to complete a set of patient observations and reduce the likelihood of recording errors.  It will help to identify deteriorating patients more rapidly, allowing specialist care to be provided quicker.

System C’s e-observations software is also operational in the health board’s new 466-bed Grange University Hospital.  Originally due to open in 2021, plans for the new specialist and critical care centre were accelerated as part of the Health Board’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.  

Dr Stephen Edwards, deputy medical director, commented:

The deployment of CareFlow has been a great success. Although under pressure from COVID, in a matter of weeks we expanded from an original pilot, trained over a thousand staff and brought two hospitals online.  We have successfully exploited our digital capability for online training as well as providing on-site training while maintaining social distancing rules.  In the first month alone we completed 45,000 observations on over 2,250 patients in our hospitals.

The system allows us to identify and care for deteriorating patients on our wards and we now have a real-time bed state to support patient flow management across our hospitals.

Aneurin Bevan is also rolling out clinical task management and handover functionality as part of its wider initiative to co-ordinate care, improve patient safety and keep staff safer across its seven hospitals.  It is already using CareFlow Connect in Critical Care at Nevill Hall Hospital to transform the task management and handover of patients, eradicating the need for paper and using mobile devices for team handovers to maintain social distancing. 

Nurses who have been unable to work in critical care during Covid-19 have also been using ‘patient status’ information available in CareFlow Connect to liaise with family members on a daily basis, providing patient updates. 

Jonathan Bloor, medical director of System C, said the company was very pleased to be working in partnership with Aneurin Bevan, helping them deliver some of their ambitions for the digital future.  

The rapid progress the Health Board has made, in very difficult conditions, is testament to the hard work and commitment of all the teams involved.  We are delighted that they are already reaping the benefits.

A substantial body of research about the use of Vitals within the NHS includes recorded quality of care benefits such as reduced mortality of 15%, a 70% reduction in cardiac arrests, and marked improvements in recognising and treating sepsis, leading to reduced length of stay and improved outcomes.  

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board serves around 639,000 people, approximately 21% of the total Welsh population, treating patients from Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Newport, Torfaen and South Powys.