A pilot scheme which introduced a responsive e-scheduling system to district nurses working for Cwm Taf Morgannwg and Aneurin Bevan University Health Boards in South Wales has been hailed a success and will now be rolled out across Wales to improve community care.
NHS Wales has contracted clinical software provider Malinko to supply its unique e-scheduling system to all of Wales’ nearly 3,000 community healthcare professionals following the successful pilot which was part of the nation’s new Neighbourhood District Nursing Model.
Instead of paper or spreadsheet-based systems, clinicians accessed their visits lists via Malinko’s mobile app. This allows intelligent scheduling of staff, matching clinical skills with patients’ needs to ensure patients are seen by the right healthcare professional at the right time.
It schedules visits based on clinical priorities and optimises routes to keep travel time to a minimum. A live visit status board and staff safeguarding board ensure real-time visibility of nurses while they are out on calls.
As well as district nurses, there are plans to roll out the software to additional services such as local authorities, occupational therapists, health visitors and children’s services.
Richard Desir, Director of Nursing at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and Chair of the newly formed National Oversight Committee NHS Wales, is a strong advocate for digital nursing.
He said: “Malinko is helping us to transform the lives of district nurses across Wales, many of whom have come from an environment where pen and paper or Excel was being used to plan community visits. They are now able to concentrate on more complex cases rather than being swamped with administrative work.”
Rob McGovern, Co-Founder at Malinko, said: “We’re incredibly proud to have been selected to support Wales with a clinical system that is enabling community teams to reduce clinical risk, improve workforce planning and safely schedule and manage patients’ care and its distributed clinical workforce.
“The empirical data the Malinko system captures, holds and reports on that we make freely available will give the NHS in Wales the opportunity to safely move more clinical services out of hospital and bring care closer to home.”