eCare: Saving Lives Assessment
The NHS have published a set of guidelines for reducing the spread of infection in a hospital ward environment. These High Impact Interventions make up a delivery programme designed to reduce healthcare associated infection including MRSA. These guidelines cover a range of measures, preventing the risk of infection and microbial contamination, particularly in catheter care and care of ventilated patients. Such infections can be a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in critically ill and postoperative patients. Therefore it is essential to follow guidelines to ensure that the prevalence of healthcare associated infections is considerably reduced .
an invaluable tool as the ward staff take responsibility for inputting their own data and there is the option of producing reports and graphs etc.
Elizabeth Holland, Clinical Audit & Effectiveness Nurse. George Eliot Hospital
Tortrix have developed a simple software solution to consolidate the data: the eCare Saving Lives Assessment. This allows the reporting of patient observations and guidelines followed to be monitored and managed more easily. The solution permits members of staff to input completed observations, or add new observations, and creates accessible graphs and gauge images to display the information in an easy-to-read format.
The solution uses web forms for data entry and each user has a secure account allowing access to the data. Entry of observations is restricted to authorised individuals, ensuring a secure data management system. The observations are recorded into a reporting system that allows members of staff to see the number of observations made along with the progress on individual wards and across departments as a whole.
The solution incorporates the NHS specific guidelines for infection control, particularly for catheter care and care of ventilated patients. The reporting and review tool is designed to improve the reliability of the clinical process. It allows progress from each department to be aggregated across departments and the NHS Trust, permitting clinical and management staff to monitor the improvement of infection control.
The eCare Saving Lives Assessment has been developed in partnership with the George Eliot Hospital. This Ward Management Dashboard allows members of staff to record observations and consolidates the data into graphs to indicate progress and targets achieved. Encouraging staff to manage their patient observations and follow rigorous infection control guidelines is a cost-effective and efficient software solution that promotes best practice in patient healthcare.