A DIGITAL list used by clinicians to track patients as they enter Royal Bolton Hospital through the emergency department has helped to slash patient wait times.

Doctors and nurses at the acute medicine unit (AMU) have used the list solution instead of manually tracking patients using paper and whiteboards.

It has enabled patients to receive appropriate care more quickly, reducing length of stays by 19 per cent. Average waiting times for patients to be reviewed by a medical consultant have also decreased by 34 per cent since it was launched.

The time saved by using the digital list is expected to result in a financial saving of more than £3m.

It was initially set up to track referrals and admissions to the AMU and it will now be deployed across teams in the Bolton NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr Nithin Narayan, an AMU consultant, said: “Our patients are admitted through multiple referral routes and can be in any number of locations across the hospital with varying degrees of serious illness. Each admission has its own process, relying on non-integrated, complex systems and non-automated tracking boards.

“Consultants were previously unsure about who to see as they moved between three or four clinical areas.

“The data speaks for itself, but the qualitative benefits need to be emphasised too.

“We can now manage our workload without constant interruptions. We no longer need to regularly repeat clinical information and our pagers don’t go off as often.

“This means our workflows are less interrupted and clinicians spend less time worrying about delays in patient care.”

The list has been nominated by the trust for several awards with the hope that the implementation will motivate other NHS trusts to create similar systems, leading to a system-wide culture change and improvement in patient safety and care.

The tool was configured within the trust’s existing Allscripts Sunrise Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system.

Dr Anna Bayes, medical director for Allscripts, added: “Bolton has really shown how sometimes the simplest applications of configuration make the biggest difference.

"Sunrise EPR gives clinicians the flexibility to create tools to optimise their workflows. Sharing these tools across teams will amplify the benefits.

“They have evidence that the time lag for crucial decision making has been reduced significantly – improving outcomes and freeing up beds faster, enhancing patient flow and speed to diagnosis for patients.”