Virtual Wards

Owned by Mohammad Al-Ubaydli
Last updated: Aug 22, 2024 by Hannah Johnson-Keck
5 min read

PKB is a data source for a virtual ward and can be used to remotely monitor patients who no longer need to be in the hospital but require medical support. This page will go through the key features teams can use. 

Current problems

  • NHS England and Improvement has recommended that all Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGS) set up remote monitoring models to help support people at home to enable Emergency admissions and readmissions 

  • Early supported discharge of patients into the community

  • Patients feel lost after discharge from the hospital and after outpatient appointments

PKB solutions

  • For stable patients and those who don't need to be in hospital, patients can be cared for at home (access to the internet and smart device 

  • A central, secure place for information and healthcare data to sit in the hands of the patient

  • Empowers patients to contribute to their own  goals and care plans

  • Provides access to prevention and health promotion resources

  • Access to management advice, with patients being fully involved in their care through shared decision-making and self-management

  • Enhanced recovery care plans for elective recovery

  • Supporting patients at home 

  • Universal messaging, the ability for patients and teams to send messages in a timely, flexible way and all in the patient's record

PKB benefits

  • Individualised care plans

  • Appropriate resource library specific to the patient’s condition

  • Timely and flexible messaging between patients and team

  • Digital appointment letters and appointments

  • Access to laboratory results

  • Symptom and measurement tracker

  • National quality of life questionnaires

  • Digital consent

  • The ability for hospital PAS to add patients to the relevant team in PKB (i.e. pain/surgical/rehab team)

 

Usecase

Chelsea & Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s Heart Failure team has pioneered the use of PKB to enable remote monitoring and self-management and reduce unplanned hospital admission/attendance.

Patients have embraced PKB with almost 60% of registered heart failure patients being over 65.   Care plan usage has increased, with around eight plans created a week.  Patient entered symptoms and measurements have grown by 200% in the last year. Secure messaging is replacing calls to the office, with usage across the Trust up 7% since launching the pilot projects. Click here to read the full case study.

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PKB Features 

There are key PKB features all virtual ward services can use with their patients to support them while they have their care and support delivered virtually while at home. A list of them is below.

Messaging

  • Patients have access to message their healthcare team (saving time on the phone)

  • The Admin team can triage messages.  Either resolving or passing onto another speciality team

  • Universal Messaging is the ability for patients to message clinical and non-clinical teams

  • Team-based messaging allows teams to automatically receive secure messages and questionnaires as a group rather than as individuals.

Library

  • Central trust library for advice, services and information

  • Disease and condition information with advice and resources

  • Treatment plans, for example, a rehab program with videos and advice a patient needs to watch and read each week

  • Rehabilitation information

  • Advice on Living well, including exercise, healthy eating, quitting smoking and alcohol recommendations

  • Details and links to National and local support groups and website

  • Professional alliance information

  • Treatment options for orthopaedic conditions and pain management

Care plans

PKB care plans can be used at every stage of a patient's condition journey, below are some of the care plan templates being used and templates that can be created.

One of PKB's customers, CMyLife in the Netherlands, wants to have a virtual hospital to reduce travel / in-person appointments and increase medication compliance and manage related symptoms/side effects remotely. They are using PKB as part of this project, allowing patients to see their blood results and ranges and track and record symptoms and measurements.

Questionnaires

PKB allows patients to complete forms, surveys, or questionnaires. Questionnaires can be sent on an individual basis or to a whole cohort of patients. The output of the questionnaires can be aggregated and anonymised and is available via the API or as a CSV download.

Teams can get patients to fill in questionnaires periodically, in some cases these are pre-appointment or post-operative assessments. Below are some of the questionnaire templates being used by teams.

Add and view data

  • Patients can view hospitals and GP data  where an integration with PKB has been set up

  • Data can include blood tests, x-ray reports, clinic and appointment letters, appointments and discharge summaries 

  • Patients can add information themselves, including operations and conditions

  • Patients can track key measurements and add any symptoms related to their orthopaedic condition

Further information