The dashboards have helped to improve patient flow within our hospitals

Friday, 09 July 2021

PhoenixSoft Limited has developed a series of COVID-19 dashboards for Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (HHFT), which runs Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, Royal Hampshire County Hospital, in Winchester, and Andover War Memorial Hospital. The dashboards are an important tool that provide essential information at a glance, and enable users to make decisions regarding clinical care, staffing and patient flow throughout the trust.
Shaun Goldsmith, Pathology IT Manager at HHFT explains: “We approached PhoenixSoft in March last year as we wanted to put something in place in preparation for the high number of cases that were anticipated. We needed a simple and accessible way of displaying where the patient samples were in the testing pathway, for our two acute site teams.”

Jason Woodard, CEO, PhoenixSoft explains: “We produced a bespoke solution, which was tested and deployed in a matter of days, free of charge to the NHS. We felt strongly that this was the best way that PhoenixSoft could support the NHS when the COVID-19 pandemic began.”
PhoenixSoft’s dashboards are displayed on large touch screens in secure site offices located within the hospitals, tracking where each patient and staff member sample is in the lab queue, and showing live results as they are processed.

The dashboards have evolved in complexity since their initial launch and now show a live COVID-19 test turnaround time summary and includes retrospective data dating back to January 2020, providing HHFT with an accurate history of all COVID-19 testing.
Shaun explains: “We made these changes so that the site teams could estimate the time of test results based on the dashboard output. This helped to dramatically reduce the number of phone calls to the laboratory team – freeing them up to continue their essential work.”
The Patient Dashboard provides a live overview of COVID-19 test results, detailing the number of tests being processed, pending results and those that are in transit between the trust’s sites.

Shaun continues “Site teams monitor the Patient Dashboard in order to prepare wards to receive patients. The dashboards have helped to improve patient flow within our hospitals; helping us to make sure that all patients receive care in appropriate areas and wards, depending on their COVID-19 status. We also have a designated dashboard for staff tests, which helps us to ensure that staff self-isolate for the correct period of time.”
PhoenixSoft has also developed and deployed a COVID-19 Management Dashboard for Hampshire Hospitals.
Jason commented: “The dashboards are very effective, simple, colour block dashboards that give an instant snapshot of throughput in the laboratory. We developed the Management Dashboard to support the trust teams to obtain data for national reporting requirements.
We also have COVID-19 dashboards running at Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust which are a little different as we have tailored the dashboards to be site-specific.”

The dashboards demonstrate the benefits of being able to access the data in a pathology Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). Both Trusts use PhoenixSoft’s Data Companion product to access their LIMS data. The dashboards provide a simple means of viewing the data in a way that is accessible for a variety of users.
PhoenixSoft’s Data Companion solution provides bulk data extraction and real time update of pathology data into an accessible industry standard database. The real time data extraction provided by Data Companion is an ideal source for live dashboards and up to date statistics.
For more information, visit www.phoenixsoft.co.uk.

ENDS

Notes for Editor
• Images available – please see attached screen shots.

• PhoenixSoft Limited was founded by Jason Woodard in 2015. The company develops specialist software solutions for healthcare, with a principal focus on Pathology. The company develops software to enable easy access to Pathology data and to support NHS organisations to meet their regulatory and compliance obligations.

• About The COVID-19 Management Dashboard: This dashboard provides a top-level view of the number of samples tested and displays these results in patient categories such as inpatients, community, care home and Trust staff. The dashboard also provides an analysis of positive results by patient age group. The dashboards have supported national reporting and local management decisions.

• About the COVID-19 Patient Dashboard: The COVID-19 Patient Dashboard provides a live overview of COVID-19 test results by patient. Headline figures are displayed showing total number of tests completed, the total of positive results and the total of negative results. For inpatient care, the dashboard shows live results for inpatients so clinicians can quickly access the results they need without having to contact the pathology department – thus, enabling the pathology team to work at maximum efficiency unhindered by telephone enquiries regarding specific patient test results.

• Interview: Jason Woodard, CEO, PhoenixSoft Ltd is available for comment via prior appointment (telephone, video call).

• For sales enquiries please contact PhoenixSoft Limited on contact@phoenixsoft.co.uk or visit www.phoenixsoft.co.uk

• For press enquiries, please contact: Philippa Bevan, Accelerate Associates, E: philippa@accelerate-associates.co.uk Tel: 07947 865 915.

Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

• Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to a population of approximately 600,000 people in Hampshire and parts of West Berkshire.
• HHFT has around 8,600 staff and a turnover of over £500 million a year.
• HHFT delivers one hospital service across multiple locations including its own hospitals, Andover War Memorial Hospital, Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital and Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester. It also provides outpatient and assessment services from Alton Community Hospital.
• As a Foundation Trust, HHFT is accountable to the local community through a system of local ownership with members and elected governors. HHFT has around 15,000 staff and public members. Foundation Trusts are free from central government control and can reinvest any surplus to develop clinical services. They are authorised and regulated by NHS Improvement, an independent regulator.
• Hampshire Hospitals Charity (Registered Charity 1060133) is managed by the Foundation Trust itself and is split into ward and department funds. The funds are used to provide items that will benefit both patients and staff as well as to brighten up patient treatment areas and staff facilities. Most wards and departments have their own funds and the decisions as to how the funds are to be used are made at ward and departmental level, subject to guidelines issued by the Charity Commission.
• Media contact - Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 01256 313062, communications@hhft.nhs.uk