Meeting the demand with a digitally-enabled care model
Open Medical is a health technology company led by practicing NHS healthcare professionals. Open Medical has worked closely with the Dermatology department at Luton & Dunstable University Hospital since 2018, deploying its Pathpoint eDerma platform to meet increasing demand, reduce costs and develop a nurse-led triage service, supported by consultant dermatologists.
The department was highly commended at the BMJ Awards, Dermatology Team of the Year 2019 after the implementation of Pathpoint eDerma.
Challenges
Maintaining timely and efficient review of hospital ward referrals, whilst being relocated offsite in a new purpose designed department.
20% increase in skin cancer referrals.
High consultant vacancy rates resulting in a significant locum spend for the department.
Reducing spend on ‘see and treat’, one-stop 2 week wait cancer clinics, in part maintained by agency locums.
We are extremely happy with the eDerma platform. The quality is excellent and the responsiveness of the Open Medical team to our feedback has been very good. Our nurses have found it easy to use. We can use the images for education. It has allowed us to reduce locum agency spend. We would highly recommend it.
Dr Bernadette De Silva
Consultant Dermatologist
Solution
More than a teledermatology system, the platform enables inpatient and outpatient referrals to be efficiently and remotely triaged, placing patients into the right pathways immediately at the point of triage.
Implementation of a service redesign alongside the Trust, to support the entire patient pathway from initial referral (primary & secondary care) to management and discharge back to the GP.
Nurse-led initial triage, utilising a digital dermatoscope and iPad, to capture high-quality images of lesions enabled the majority of assessments to be completed remotely by a Consultant Dermatologist without the need for a face-to-face appointment.
Digital management of multiple aspects of the patient pathway including biopsy lists, MDT assessments and clinical governance assessments.
Built-in digital sign-on-screen patient consent, images that are saved onto the platform and coded to specific diagnoses.
The platform has been developed in accordance with the published British Association of Dermatologists Quality Standards for Teledermatology and provides an effective, secure, robust and customisable solution for the demand management of a busy multi-site dermatology department; whilst also bridging primary and secondary care services with its community-based model.
Reduction in face-to-face appointments, significantly increasing efficiencies and direct cost savings on locum spend, along with reduced indirect costs.
Improved working practices and reduced unnecessary travel by enabling better inpatient reviews, eliminating unnecessary face-to-face clinic appointments.
Data is captured in real-time and coded with internationally recognized SNOMED CT, enabling Pathpoint eDerma to support ongoing audits and quality improvement.
eDerma pathway
Results
Moving our dermatology department off-site was a daunting process as we wondered how we would continue to provide inpatient-based dermatology care. The introduction of eDerma was invaluable during the transition period and in allowing us to continue to provide an efficient and effective referrals service to the medical and surgical teams back at the hospital site.
Dr Catriona Hayes
Dermatology Specialty Registrar – Luton and Dunstable University Hospital
