How Virtual Wards have Revolutionised Healthcare

Virtual wards offer the promise of changing healthcare in exciting and unprecedented ways, and have become indispensable to the NHS’ future-proofing strategy. As we brace for higher patient volumes, virtual wards have helped healthcare professionals reimagine how we deliver patient-centric care.

This begs an important question - how exactly are virtual wards revolutionising the future of healthcare?

1. Reduced Bed Congestion

One of the biggest challenges facing the NHS is how to manage increased demand for emergency services while contending with an equally severe staffing crisis. By September of 2023, the NHS had already reported 24 million emergency attendances, marking another record-breaking year for patient volumes.

Virtual wards will be instrumental for reducing bed occupancy and freeing up space for the most acutely ill patients. Doccla’s work at Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) provided an alternative to readmission or supported earlier discharge approximately 487 times in 2022 alone, showcasing the immense potential virtual wards have in reducing bed congestion.

2. Better Allocation of Ambulance Resources:

One of the biggest challenges faced by the NHS is unnecessarily long ambulance wait times. Rather alarmingly, one in 10 ambulances spend more than an hour waiting outside hospitals. This leads to major bottlenecks in the delivery of effective care for the most acute patients.

However, remote patient monitoring has the potential to redress these inefficiencies. Through regular monitoring, nurses can immediately identify diagnose, and address any pressing concerns encountered by patients, thus preventing unnecessary ambulance conveyances. By joining forces with the East of England Ambulance Service in Hertfordshire Community Trust, our remote monitoring kits have already reduced ambulance conveyances by 67% and increased the time available for crew to respond to acute emergency calls.

3. Enhanced Patient Outcomes:

Research has proven that prolonged stays in hospital can actually deteriorate patient wellbeing. Hospital environments can increase exposure to infection, disrupt healthy sleep patterns from excessively loud environments, and lead to deconditioning as patients become accustomed to inactivity. Physical consequences aside, prolonged stays in hospital can also be very disruptive to family life, particularly for individuals with care-taker responsibilities.

Doccla’s work at BNSSG was therefore a welcome innovation to how patients received care. Patients reported overwhelmingly positive experiences with the NHS@Home service, including feeling much more comfortable in their own surroundings, which expedited recovery. One patient even explained the relief they felt being able to stay home and continue caring for their disabled son: “I felt I could put my health first while still looking after him.”

4. Improved Patient Autonomy: Virtual wards not only continue to deliver high quality care to patients in the comfort of their own homes, but equip patients with the autonomy to better manage their own health. By tracking their vital signs, patients have access to visualised trends of how their health progresses over time and are encouraged to be active agents in regulating their health. Our clinicians also have access to a versatile library of resources and information to share with their patients, empowering individuals to better understand the intricacies of their condition and manage it effectively.

5. Making Nursing More Accessible:

While it’s all well and good to tout the virtues of virtual wards for patients, this shift towards digital-enabled care could pioneer a more equitable future for nurses as well. It remains undeniable that nursing as a career is immensely physically demanding, with many eventually having to leave the profession due to burnout, chronic fatigue, and physical ailments. Unfortunately, the strenuous demands of the profession form a major barrier to entry for those with disabilities.?

However, remote patient monitoring has finally paved the path for an alternative model of nursing that is more accessible, sustainable, and equitable. Many of our Doccla nurses are individuals who would have had to leave nursing entirely due to various physical conditions. However, our virtual solution allows them to continue harnessing their clinical expertise, make informed medical decisions, and continue positively impacting the lives of patients, all while protecting their physical health.

Undeniably, then, the benefits of virtual wards are numerous. Virtual wards can support the NHS in delivering care to greater volumes of patients, in empowering individuals to better manage their health with minimal disruption to daily life, and in bringing long overdue reforms to nursing. With all the advantages of virtual care, it’s time we embrace the shift towards virtual wards and remote patient monitoring.

If you think we can help your patients with our virtual wards, get in touch today -https://bit.ly/3Rw9jbZ