Provide Community has been trialing Brigid, a new SystmOne app developed by clinical software company TPP which enables community nursing teams to view and manage live patient records on demand from their smartphones.
Outreach to nursing colleagues found that they were spending a lot of time manually writing extensive follow-up notes after each appointment which was making their role significantly harder.
As part of the innovation project, Community Nursing Teams were issued with new smartphones connected to Brigid, enabling them to access and update records in real time without the need for a laptop or paper.
Supported by Provide Community’s Technology Systems and Support Manager, Carol Gerrard, the Brigid App rollout has given nurses a wealth of knowledge at their fingertips, including health records, medical appointments and prescribed medications. Nurses can now see what actions their colleagues have taken in real time, and how they’ve been interacting with other service teams.
Since its introduction within Provide’s Community Nursing Team, the Care Coordination Centre has seen a dramatic reduction in the number of telephone calls it receives from nursing staff out in the field. Busy triage nurses can also receive live updates about new referrals as they come in during the working day.
Karen Wheeler, Senior Clinical Manager at Provide Community, said; “Brigid has transformed the patient journey, enabling us to make more informed decisions, for example around the medication the patient is on and how that impacts clinical intervention and their journey. We can see the other professionals that are involved with the patient, pick up test results from the system, access key codes, letters around recent appointments and discharge information.
“The new Brigid App revolutionises working with our patients, their families, their carers and other professionals at the point of contact.
“The work we have done with the systems team is phenomenal and the collaboration has been fantastic.”