Hospitals across Scotland are benefitting from £2.2 million in additional funding to track patients through digital wards.

The digital patient trackers display a virtual map of the hospital ward on large touch-screen and portable mobile devices, meaning staff can act quickly to treat or transfer a patient and ensure patients move through the hospital system quicker.

Patient details can be accessed by touching each patient ‘icon’ and free beds can be marked and allocated right away.

Currently, 25 hospitals across Scotland are using the system, and this funding will mean it can be further rolled out to more wards within the hospitals.

This additional money will enhance the system, to allow NHS staff to view the hospital as a whole, rather than by individual ward, and will enable staff to monitor medicines being prescribed to patients more closely.

The work will also enable Scottish-based IT company Nugensis, who have developed the ‘Wardview’ programme, to create another 20 jobs.

The programme was initially trialled in NHS Borders, and is now being rolled out across hospitals in Scotland to support the unscheduled care action plan.

This builds on investment of £2.2 million which has already been distributed to health boards last year to support the roll out.

Health Secretary Alex Neil said:

“This innovative system is already working well at hospitals across Scotland by enabling staff to have a view of their patients and wards at the touch of a finger.

“This secure new technology is ensuring people are treated and move through the hospital system as quickly as possible, without delay.

“The system gives full visibility of what is happening across hospital and assists with the flow of patients in the hospital, reducing unnecessary delays.

“This additional funding will enable more hospitals across Scotland to benefit from this system.

“We are taking significant action to improve unscheduled care across Scotland, and this investment support our unscheduled care action plan.

“We can’t see A&E departments in isolation - we have to look at how patients move through the whole hospital, and that is exactly what this system is helping to do.”

Jane Davidson, Chief Operating Officer for NHS Borders, said:

“This technology helps clinicians to do the job they want to do – provide safe, quality care for their patients. It’s part of how we work on our wards in NHS Borders. It is available for all to see at a glance and means that sharing information is easy and that next steps for patients can be planned.”

Dr Hamish McRitchie, Associate Medical Director for NHS Borders, said:

“Our system helps to prevent patients staying in hospital longer than they need to and makes sure that our beds are used effectively. We don’t want anyone to be in the wrong ward, or in hospital longer than they need to be - and neither do our patients.”