ARI selected Beds after a pilot study at eight wards in the Acute Medical and Receiving areas of the hospital. It has now extended the system to seven more wards and plans to deploy it across the remaining 29 wards during 2008.
The Beds software will replace ARI’s existing paper-based manual system.
Adam Coldwells, assistant general manager at ARI, said: “The software not only shows us, minute by minute, which patient is where, but also the estimated date for the patient leaving hospital, which makes bed capacity management and discharge planning much more effective.”
Before implementing this system, ward managers in the hospital had to monitor and report on bed status in their ward twice a day, with nurses using white boards to note the names of patients and their respective beds.
Coldwells has said that ExtraMed’s software enabled the hospital to put the bed capacity to optimum use, by providing minute information. With the software in place, staff nurses can locate patients and see their scheduled discharge dates, while doctors can check the timing and sequence of tests. Porters can collect the patients from the wards as per the schedule, by accessing information from Beds.
Elizabeth Millar, sister at the cardiology ward of ARI, said: “The new system is a timesaver. All of us found it very easy. In half an hour you understand the basics and can use it. It is a simple, colour-coded system, you hover the mouse for details, rather than click your way through menus, and colours show how soon a patient is ready to be discharged from red to yellow to green. Green means it’s in 24 hours.”
