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

2023年5月，英格兰超过10%的医院床位被医学上适合出院但无法出院的患者阻塞。这是由于缺乏一个协调的方法，如何照顾病人一旦他们离开医院。床位堵塞导致其他患者在急诊室等待更长的时间才能入院，反过来又导致急诊室的救护车移交时间更长，因为急诊部门正在努力应对患者数量。通过更好的管理和机构之间的信息流动，使出院更有效率，可以及时提供更多的床位。出院过程中的所有利益相关者，包括医院协调员和NHS服务、护理院设施、住家护理提供者、慈善机构和包括家庭成员在内的护理提供者，都需要清楚地了解患者的当前状态和后续护理要求，以便为有效出院制定计划。这些涉众中的许多人要么在流程的循环之外，要么在试图获得计划和提供所需的服务和操作所需的详细信息时，会收到大量延迟的不完整信息。我们的项目将设计一个名为PatientFlo的数字解决方案，结合以人为本和系统感知的设计原则来解决上述多学科问题。PatientFlo将提供全面的沟通和协调能力，在复杂的出院过程中管理跨组织的工作流程。以移动应用程序和带有管理员门户的基于web的服务的形式创建用户友好的解决方案，将有助于协调社区护理服务，将人们从医院送回家或送到护理机构，获得更好的护理服务，从而降低再入院率。PatientFlo的创新之处在于它解决了一个紧迫的健康问题。它针对现有的手工、纸质、依赖电话沟通的流程，将流程数字化，使其更高效、更可扩展。它与目前的综合护理委员会非常一致，在这些委员会中，基于地点的伙伴关系将在改善人口的健康和福祉方面发挥重要作用。

In May 2023, over 10% of all hospital beds in England were blocked by patients who were medically fit for discharge, but could not be discharged. This was due to a lack of a coordinated approach on how the patient would be cared for once they left the hospital. Blocked beds contribute to other patients waiting longer in the emergency department before they are admitted, and in turn, results in longer ambulance handover times in the emergency department, as emergency departments struggle with the volumes of patients. By making discharges efficient with better management and flow of information between organisations, more beds could be made available in a timely manner.All stakeholders in the discharge process including, hospital coordinators and NHS services, care home facilities, domiciliary care providers, charities and care providers including family members need clear visibility of the patient's current state and aftercare requirements to plan for an effective discharge from the hospital. Many of these stakeholders are either out of the loop of the process or receive incomplete information with large delays trying to get the details they need to plan and provide the services and actions required.Our project will design a digital solution called PatientFlo incorporating people-centred and system-aware design principles to solve the multidisciplinary problem described above. PatientFlo will provide comprehensive communication and coordination capabilities to manage cross-organisational workflows in the complex discharge process. Enabling the creation of a user-friendly solution, in the form of a mobile app and web-based service with administrator portals, will help coordinate community care services, sending people home or to a care facility from the hospital with improved care services that should reduce readmission rates. 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.