PatientFlo – Help patients get out of hospital quicker, and keep them out of hospital

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On any given day in the NHS, hospitals have a large number of patients who are ready for discharge, but have no way of getting home by themselves. Consequently, hospitals have started contracting with local charities to take these patients home from hospital, however the scheduling and managing of this service is very manual.Our project will create a digital solution, PatientFlo, that not only automates and digitises the 'Home from Hospital' service, but also ensures a regular check-in between the patient and the charity to reduce the number of readmissions into hospital. In addition to addressing the patient's mental and physical wellbeing after discharge, this project will help free up beds for patients waiting for treatment, and consequently reduce long ambulance handover delays.PatientFlo will be user-friendly, intuitive, secure and be used by multiple personae. The process to help patients get discharged will be initiated by a NHS ward manager in hospital using PatientFlo to notify their local charity of patients who are ready for discharge, but have no way of getting home by themselves. The charity administrator who receives these notifications on PatientFlo will manage and schedule charity wellbeing workers to transport patients from hospital to home. The patient will continue to receive visits from the wellbeing worker for up to six weeks post-discharge if they live by themselves.PatientFlo will help schedule the follow-up visits, and allow the wellbeing worker to use the solution as a digital diary for the patient. These visits are important to ensure the patient is in an environment where they can recover well, e.g. they have food and heating, which reduces the chance of readmission to hospital. These visits will also reduce the anxiety of patients who live by themselves, reduce loneliness and improve their mental health.PatientFlo is innovative because it addresses an urgent health problem. It targets an existing process that is manual, paper-based, and reliant on phone communication, digitises the process, making it more efficient and scalable. It aligns well with the current Integrated Care Boards where place-based partnerships will play a major role in improving the health and wellbeing of the population. PatientFlo will be developed in collaboration with Age UK in Bath, who will then be our first customer.PatientFlo will be designed to interoperate with NHS systems and will comply with NHS Digital standards like DCB0129 and DBC0160\.