Somerset
NHS Foundation Trust
Text with Dynamic Background
transforming
PREOPERATIVE WORKFLOWS

Improving capacity in elective care

In response to the challenges of managing an older patient population with multiple comorbidities, Somerset NHS Foundation Trust (SFT) has chosen to innovate. They implemented Open Medical’s advanced preoperative assessment platform, Pathpoint ePOA. This digital tool assists in surgical planning and risk stratification, helping to increase clinician capacity and optimise patients before surgery.

Challenges

  • High volume and backlog of patients requiring POA assessment, worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic

  • Growing complexity of patients due to increasing number of patients with multiple comorbidities in an ageing population

  • Existing processes were complex, which led to delays and cancellations

  • Lack of consistent data collection on clinical patient data pre- and post-operation which is crucial for auditing and service improvement

Solution

  • ePOA is a cloud-based electronic pre-operative assessment system designed to streamline the management of patients scheduled for elective surgery

  • It supports the shift to best practice, aligning with the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme

  • ePOA facilitates early screening through risk-stratification of patients into low, moderate and high complexity levels, which, in turn, improves opportunity for health optimisation before surgery

  • Multiple teams can coordinate workflows and gain real-time oversight of each patient’s progress, promoting communication and collaboration from any location

An integrated, modular, perioperative workflow solution

Key improvements

69%
of patients responded to the screening questionnaires within four days and 65.43% responding on the same day
67%
completion rate of POA questionnaires, indicating high patient engagement
High response rate facilitated early stratification for
70%
of patients
64%
of patients completed their questionnaire over a month before their provisional surgery date
Early identification of key health issues in patients, facilitating timely optimisation
14.5%
as active smokers
9.6%
with type 2 diabetes
26.5%
with high blood pressure
The time taken to complete the questionnaire remained consistent across all age groups, showing ease of use and accessibility for all patients

With the ultimate goal of improving quality of care, Pathpoint helps organisations standardise care, streamline processes to enhance efficiency, leverage data-driven insights, and foster a collaborative excellence among healthcare providers, all seamlessly

ALIGNING WITH GIRFT PRINCIPLES.