The NHS Urgent Care Team successfully introduced an urgent care dashboard in September last year and it is now widely used across the county’s health and social care system.
The dashboard helps to provide clinicians, community teams and the ambulance service with relevant and timely data to support clinical decisions that improve the quality and safety of patient care.
Phil Huckle, Urgent Care Programme Support Manager, said: “The dashboard is an enabler to help teams understand where risks and pressures exist within the system. The live updates allow joined-
up and proactive working – this increased efficiency is good for patient benefit and to reduce staff duplication. Crucially the dashboard makes us more resilient at times of higher pressure.”
Data, which is collated from multiple sources, is displayed in a graphical and user-friendly way in real-time. Along with data showing the situation over the previous 24 hours, United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT) live data includes the current number of patients in the emergency
department and current performance; East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) live data includes handover times and the number of ambulance arrivals at each hospital.
Previously operational data was collated on paper-based reports (Situation Reports) which were then emailed to colleagues or relayed over the phone. All data from the Situation Reports is now represented in the dashboard to allow paper-based reports to be phased out eventually.
The outstanding work of the Urgent Care Team in delivering this project has generated interest from other NHS systems and the team is delighted to have been asked to deliver a national webinar in September based on the work done and the outcomes/outputs achieved.
Ruth Cumbers, Urgent Care Programme Director, said: “I am thrilled with the dashboard, its positive impact on the system and how it supports us to improve quality and patient safety particularly during times of high demand when the urgent care system requires consistent management and
leadership. We are proud to receive national recognition of the ongoing improvement work and to support our peers with the same. “
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