Introducing Version 8 - delivering integrated services ‘beyond the hospital walls’
Intouch with Health (part of the VitalHub UK Group) is pleased to introduce Version 8 of the Intouch Platform. Version 8 is the latest release of the Intouch with Health Platform, which currently supports over 110 hospitals to efficiently manage more than 30 million patient appointments annually.
Officially released on February 18th 2021, Version 8 realises the vision of delivering services beyond the hospital walls by supporting fully integrated and intelligent blended patient flow in one dashboard. This lets hospital staff manage all virtual / remote / long-term conditions patients (via video or telephone) alongside patients physically attending hospital appointments – from one cohesive dashboard.
The launch of Version 8 pioneers the use of a digital-first approach to accessing healthcare by seamlessly integrating the proactive and preventative measures achieved through care in the community with traditional, hospital-based patient care.
It allows hospitals to provide real choice to patients who can be treated through a combination of digital and physical interactions, depending on their care requirements, preferred use of technology and overall care preferences.
What’s more, it supports, promotes and encourages flexibility and convenience in the access and delivery of healthcare, including the delivery of ICS and ICP models of care.
Version 8 also includes new, extra features that further support social distancing and infection prevention measures; features that are designed specifically to support hospitals in tackling new challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The priority now for healthcare is to achieve a fully integrated infrastructure to manage all appointments and care services using a single, connecting platform that delivers an end-to-end, blended patient journey be that in hospital, at home or out in the community. ”
Integrate and collaborate with flexibility and convenience
Version 8 supports an eco-system of industry-leading health-tech collaborators whose solutions integrate with the Intouch Platform to provide a joined-up technological infrastructure at hospital and Trust level, and across geographical regions at ICS level.
From a single dashboard, clinicians can view and manage each patient’s status (including their arrival for a physical or virtual appointment), and either digitally call them to the consultation room or launch a video call, before recording the appointment outcome digitally and/or scheduling the next stage of the patient’s pathway.
A fully integrated technological infrastructure to serve all patients
Ahead of the launch of Version 8, VitalHub UK CEO, Mike Sanders, said:
“Before the COVID-19 pandemic changed healthcare, the NHS Long Term Plan outlined that, over the next five years, ‘redesigned hospital support will be able to avoid up to a third of outpatient appointments – saving patients 30 million trips to the hospital and saving the NHS over £1billion a year’. The pandemic has provided a catalyst for the introduction of this redesigned way of delivering care.
“At significant pace, we have seen a shift from face-to-face consultations to the vast majority being ‘digital-first’, either via telephone, text, video call or online. This has fundamentally changed the way that care is delivered. But digital isn’t for everyone, and it is vital non-digital native patients are not left behind. Patients now have more flexibility in how they access healthcare, being able to mix and match channels – and with Version 8, hospital staff can easily and efficiently manage these different channels alongside each other, benefiting both staff and patients.
“With the move to increased use of digital channels, we will see care becoming more proactive and preventive, as well as more personalised and precise, both in hospitals and out in the community. Version 8 supports integration with many collaborators already, and we expect the list to continue to grow. These collaborators specialise in a variety of areas, such as diabetes or IBS, and support patients to monitor their vital signs, such as blood sugar levels, through dedicated apps. Through full integration, staff can access and launch the very same specialist apps from Version 8’s main dashboard, helping them to manage all patients in the community as easily and efficiently as those inside the hospital.”
Future-ready and meeting COVID-19 challenges
Mike continues:
“The COVID-19 pandemic has had and will continue to have a significant impact on care. In response, we have included extra features within Version 8 alongside new solutions that support hospitals with social distancing, infection prevention measures and capacity management. We have focused not only on solutions that help keep patients out of busy waiting rooms, but also on increased communication between the staff inside the buildings and patients outside waiting to come in for an appointment.
“The rapid adoption of digital technology in 2020 has helped NHS Trusts understand how much more efficiently they can deliver outpatient care by keeping patients out of the hospital and avoiding unnecessary physical appointments, all of which are key objectives of the Long-Term Plan.
“The priority now for healthcare is to achieve a fully integrated infrastructure to manage all appointments and care services using a single, connecting platform that delivers an end-to-end, blended patient journey be that in hospital, at home or out in the community. Version 8 is the foundation of this integrated technological infrastructure.”
Key highlights of Version 8:
- A blended dashboard to manage virtual consultations alongside face-to-face appointments with integration available via APIs to additional video providers
- Fully integrate with an eco-system of collaborators – including leading video consultation, remote care and long-term conditions solutions providers
- Support a central or remote reception team linked to patients or hospital visitors via a video call through a self-check-in kiosk with iReceptionist
- Improve social distancing and infection prevention measures with new advanced features added to the mobile patient check-in processes, including audible alerts, clinic wait time messaging and Reception alerts for custom question answers
