DHU Healthcare’s Virtual Ward programme has extended meaning more patients in Derbyshire can now receive treatment and support at home instead of at hospital.
A virtual ward is a way for clinicians to be able to monitor patients who don’t necessarily need a hospital admission at home. It is done remotely on a daily basis and enables the patient to retain a greater degree of control of their condition and their own independence.
Until recently, the DHU-led Virtual Ward was for respiratory patients and used for care during the Covid-19 pandemic. But, thanks to its success, it has been expanded to care for vulnerable or ‘at risk’ patients of any age or whose condition can be appropriately managed at home under the supervision of the Virtual Ward team.
Patient choice...
Emma Wardale is an Advanced Nurse Practitioner at DHU’s Virtual Ward, she said: “It gives a much greater degree of choice for the patient about where they want to receive treatment and what kind of control they would like to have over their own condition. As a concept, the virtual ward is a means of ensuring patients can stay at home and receive the right level of clinical care and support as they would in a hospital, when they need it.”
The Virtual Ward works in one of two ways. Patients can be triaged and referred there if they don’t need to be admitted to hospital. Alternatively, they can be admitted from hospital if their condition improves enough for them to be discharged but they still require monitoring and clinical support as part of their discharge plan.
"Enormous benefits to care and recovery..."
Emma added: “There are certain criteria, for example we look at each patient to ascertain whether or not they are vulnerable, is it safe to keep them at home or would they benefit from a hospital admission, what does the patient want and can their condition be adequately managed and monitored remotely. It isn’t one size fits all but for those able to use the service, it has enormous benefits to their care and recovery.
“We use a variety of monitoring tools to continually assess a patient’s weight, urine colour, heart rate, oxygen levels, we can monitor COPD conditions and take pictures of wounds to ensure they are healing properly. We can liaise with the patient’s GP and other health professionals who have treated the patient to make use of extra decision-making tools, all of which is peace of mind for the patient and provides crucial information for our DHU clinicians.
“Our patients have given us tremendous feedback and we know that many of them would have required hospital admission if we weren’t able to provide this care remotely. It has proven to be an effective way of keeping patients who aren’t critically ill but do need medical intervention out of hospital whilst still receiving the treatment and care required to make them well.”
DHU currently has 50 virtual ward ‘beds’ with patients referred from any GP practice, Royal Derby and Chesterfield Royal Hospitals, Urgent Treatment Centres and community services.