Digital patient flow tech will move patients through major new NHS Grampian healthcare buildings

Digital patient flow technology will play a key role in the daily operation of NHS Grampian’s new Baird Family Hospital and ANCHOR Centre, with The ANCHOR Centre due to open next year and The Baird Family Hospital in 2024.

The health board has appointed Cirencester-based digital patient flow specialist Intouch with Health to deliver the project following a two year procurement process.

The buildings – located at Foresterhill Health Campus in Aberdeen - will use patient self-check-in kiosks to let patients register their arrival for appointments and digital patient calling screens to call patients forward to individual consultation rooms.

Patients will also be able to check-in for their appointment using a mobile phone or tablet on arrival.

“With the deployment of the Intouch with Health patient flow platform, we’re looking forward to achieving an improved experience for our patients attending an Outpatients appointment.”

Intouch with Health’s digital Patient Wait Time Manager module will also be deployed to review clinic running times and identify potential delays before automatically informing patients.

Colin Garrod, Commercial and Bid Manager at VitalHub UK, the parent organisation of Intouch with Health, said: “The Baird Family Hospital and The ANCHOR Centre have been designed with automated patient flow technology at their core to efficiently manage ambulatory appointments for the 500,000 people NHS Grampian serves.

“We have worked closely with the project team – including architects, eHealth representatives, IT, and estates teams to help design the new buildings from the ground up with patient flow technology front of mind.

“This project follows the success of our project at the Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary, which opened in 2017 and uses technology from Intouch to manage patient flow.”

“We will soon be able to provide patients with the option to arrive themselves for their appointment via digital kiosks. As a result, patients will be able to avoid waiting in a queue at reception, which will relieve pressure on our limited reception resources.”

Kelly Easton, eHealth Programme Manager at NHS Grampian, said:

“The Baird Family Hospital and The ANCHOR Centre is an exciting project that will result in two new buildings being opened on the site in 2023 and 2024, to support and enhance the provision of clinical care. Both buildings will include state-of-the-art research and teaching facilities and will offer a person-centred environment of care. NHS Grampian undertook a competitive tender process to identify a leading digital patient flow partner for this project, in which Intouch with Health were the successful bidder.

“With the deployment of the Intouch with Health patient flow platform, we’re looking forward to achieving an improved experience for our patients attending an Outpatients appointment.

“We will soon be able to provide patients with the option to arrive themselves for their appointment via digital kiosks. As a result, patients will be able to avoid waiting in a queue at reception, which will relieve pressure on our limited reception resources. This will in turn, further support an elevated experience for patients requiring one-to-one assistance from reception as staff will have more time as a significant cohort of patients will check themselves in.

“During the check-in process, patients will be able to validate their personal information, including demographic information currently held in the hospital systems, which will help improve our data accuracy and complete any gaps we may have.

“Once patients have completed the check-in process, they will be directed to where they need to wait to be called into the clinical area. Once in the waiting room, the patients can be called digitally via wall-mounted screens, ensuring that only those patients actively being seen will be within the clinical area, whilst the patients not ready to be seen will remain in the waiting areas, which supports our capacity management and social distancing guidelines.”

New digital patient flow tech will play a key role in the daily operation of the new Baird Family Hospital and ANCHOR Centre, says NHS Grampian