Restarting Elective Surgery | Connected4Health

Buddy Healthcare

Automated Digital Perioperative Pathway Support for Health Trusts/Boards
Restarting Elective Surgery

As we exit the worst of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the NHS is urgently looking to restart or expand Elective Surgery.

However, Preoperative Assessment and Surgical Pathway support of Patients is often a bottleneck in getting people ready for surgery. At the same time, Hospitals need to take cognisance of Covid infection control and therefore keeping patients away from hospitals, where possible, until reqired.

Most hospitals in the UK use a paper-based preoperative and surgical pathway support system, established decades ago and mostly based on initial paperwork developed in the South of England and improved over the years, with input from the Royal College of Anaesthetists and other sources.

Simply digitising paper forms, and expecting patients to fill them in on a Web portal, is a slight step forward, but often employs none or little pathway management to ensure the efficiency of the processes are improved.

Also, in this digital age, accessing data on mobile is far more prevalent at every age level, than web access. So the use of clever APPs is crucial for the easiest way to not only engage with patients, but manager the flow.

Who are Buddy HealthCare?

Buddy HealthCare has been established in Finland for over 5 years, are now in the USA, Germany and very lately in the NHS in Scotland.

Already, supporting over 200 Care Pathway templates, the system has a Clinical Dashboard, hosted in the Cloud in the UK, with a Web Portal access, a Reporting System, a Patient APP on Android and Apple and a sophisticated management system helping to Improve Outcomes, while making the systems more efficient, saving money and meeting healthcare economic targets and safety issues.

We have a large list of features, almost as many benefits and case studies and stories from most surgical areas, helping to convince all specialties within hospitals of how this is the absolute right choice today.

We are happy to do a demonstration, provide case studies and brochures, where further information is needed.

AUTOMATE CARE PATHWAYS

Reduce Administrative Burden and Improve Patient Experience and Outcomes

200+
Care Pathway Templates - ready-made, proven and customisable

98%
Fewer Pre-Op Phone Calls - freeing staff for crucial work

>90%
Of Patients Would Recommend the App - and use it willingly

+1h
Reduction in Time Spent per Patient Preoperatively

-50%

Reduction in "Did not Attends", through proper reminders

+25%

Improvement in Patient Outcomes

Who are Connected4Health?

Connected4Health (C4H) are the value-added-resellers (VARs) for Buddy, within the UK and Ireland. We are experts in the sales, marketing, delivery and management of projects using Buddy. We also help convert content, design pathway support and manage a changeover process with proper project management.

The C4H team is currently made up of around 17 individuals who all have a wide range of skills, experience and insight. From software engineers to Project managers, we are able to form and lead a core project team to deliver projects you are looking to start.

Some of our attributes & experience

Healthcare innovation based on long-term conditions, patient feedback and service optimisation
Working across an organisation with clinical and other staff and at Board level
Proven success, working with industry partners
100+ years of Healthcare sector & Public sector experience
Understanding of the pressures facing Healthcare in today's challenging circumstances
- where a pandemic is stretching resources and budgets to the limits
Unique expertise and understanding of needs within the Social and Health sectors
mHealth, eHealth, TeleCare and TeleHealth digital products expertise

C4H is very well connected. One of our consultant partners is an ex-Director of the NHS for the Northwest of England. She was the first Director of Patient Engagement in the NHS and has critical connections at every level. She is currently a Non-Executive Director of an NHS Trust and has qualifications in Business, as well as being from a Clinical background.

Another consultant is married to the CEO of a large care provider, as well as being a Consultant to Charities and Health & Social Care providers across the North of England. He brings decades of personal experience in social care and is a key part of us replying to tenders in this sector.

Health Economics

Let’s start on the financial benefits. The NHS still suffers from 'Did Not Attend's (DNAs) at every level of interaction, even the actual surgery itself.

This costs the average hospital millions of pounds per year. SMS reminders can reduce this from the average DNA 12% level, to around 9%, but struggles to maintain this over time as people become blasé from constant reminders.

The Buddy system consistently halves the DNAs and maintains that through our persistent interaction and usefulness to patients.

Additionally, our system leads to a 98% reduction in phone calls, an 80% reduction in admin work and an ability to manage 50% more patients in a day, per nurse. All in all, giving a return on investment from day 1 of use. Let us show how.

Improved Outcomes

This is key to our system, with the ability to support patients who are onboarded either at initial referral, or once accepted for surgery.

Immediately, patients are delivered Information about the hospital, the procedure, anaesthesia, Pre-Habilitation, including exercises to better prepare for surgery, preoperative assessment, delivery of Consent forms, Medication and Fasting Alerts. Then with reminders at every stage, preparation for the surgery day. Post-surgery enhanced recovery protocols, with support for patients at their home, including messaging with reassessment and surgical unit support all through the process, including pictures of wounds and helpful hints on care and pain management.

Add in PREMs and PROMs and we offer a fantastic patient information system.

These have been proven to improve patient's outcomes, and no other system on the market is so comprehensive.

Supporting Patients

Using a mobile APP for patients, with support for the digitally impoverished using ‘buddies’ from friends and family, plus supporting others using telephone or NHS Video remote support, we cover accessibility issues.

Patients find the process simple and comprehensive, with the ability to ask questions and have delivered additional information where needed. Over 90% of patients take part and also recommend it to others.

Supporting Clinicians

Hospital staff find the Buddy system easy to use, as well as reducing their workload.

The management system can be integrated with back-end patient record systems, to automatically fill in demographic and other information, plus pushing some results back, where required.

If a scheduled procedure date changes, the Buddy timeline automatically changes to adjust the timings of when to deliver questionnaires, alerts and reminders. Staff are fully aware of where patients are on a timeline and diary.

Patients who have created automatic anaesthetic alerts, are easily filtered by staff, to allow potential additional questionnaires or interactions to be pushed to patients.

Invites to telephone, video or face-to-face meetings, allows easy support of the patient flow.

Supporting the Trust/Board

We can customise a system to suit existing processes, to minimise the cultural shock of a change for staff. At Connected4Health (C4H), Buddy's value-added resellers in the UK, we are experts in process design, staff training and handling and system customisation to suit. Financial considerations can be explained easily, we have example Business Case documents we can share and we can work to ensure the easiest implementation and softest disruption while ensuring rapid adoption and fullest benefit.

COVID-19 Support

Already, we have support for keeping patients Isolated and reporting symptoms for all patients attending the hospital. This can be applied to any timeline, at the appropriate stage. This helps ensure that attending patients are as covid-free as possible.

List of Features and Benefits for Patients Lists of Features and Benefits for Clinicians

“Automated care coordination and remote monitoring reduce care personnel's workload, patient no-shows and cancellations resulting in reduced healthcare costs”

surgery-app-for-patients-and-realtime-da

anesthesia-pre-questionnaire-mobile-app.

Follow up Patients' Progress with Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)

Through the dashboard, care providers have a real-time 360 degrees view over all of the patients’ care pathways and activities.

The platform provides attention notifications if a patient is about to deviate from the care pathway, helping healthcare providers to intervene sooner to early signs of potential no-shows or cancellations.

The interactive platform allows sending extra reminders and messages to the patients at risk.

Engage Patients with an APP

An easy-to-use mobile app helps patients to navigate through their care pathways and ensures that patients have access to important care-related information 24/7.

Timely automated reminders and push notifications ensure that patients get the right information at the right time.

Push notifications can be used to share

Pre-operative assessment