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February 2010 VitalPAC wins Patient Safety AwardPortsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust has won the "Technology and IT to Improve Patient Safety" award at this year's Patient Safety Awards in recognition of their use of VitalPAC. Professor Gary Smith, Clinical Lead for VitalPAC at the Trust said: "We are delighted that the hard work of the team has been recognised. The system allows us to observe patients better, detect deterioration earlier and ensure early intervention in the sick patient's care by nurses and doctors." The hotly contested awards are jointly sponsored by HSJ and Nursing Times. Nursing Times editor-in-chief Alistair McLellan said the judges deemed VitalPAC “very innovative and well thought [out], which had contributed significantly to patient safety.” He continued: “It demonstrated an excellent development process utilising existing evidence, while the ongoing use of data is further developing clinical practice in this area.” The Trust also received another nomination in the Technology and IT to Improve Patient Safety category and one nomination in the Infection Control and Hygiene category, all for VitalPAC. Click here to view more details on the award. Click here for the Patient Safety Awards website. January 2010 VitalPAC highly commended in e-Government awardsAt a gala dinner held at the London Guildhall, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire was highly commended in the "Leadership and Professionalism" category for the way it introduced VitalPAC at the Trust. The Trust rolled out VitalPAC to over 900 beds in the space of 6 months, one of the most rapid deployments of the system to date. Since then it has continued to extend its use of VitalPAC to include real-time bed management and the use of personal mobile devices by doctors. Click here for the e-Government National Awards website. VitalPAC at the Patient Safety CongressThe Patient Safety Congress is the UK's leading patient safety event. This year it runs from 25-26 May at Birmingham's ICC, with NHS chief executive David Nicholson among the influential speakers already confirmed. The focus of this year's event is embedding change. Staff from The Learning Clinic will be on Stand B26 to demonstrate how VitalPAC can permanently improve observations practice and the detection of deteriorating patients. The Learning Clinic is offering an exclusive 25% discount to anyone interested in attending the event. To obtain this discount, call 0845 056 8299 or email psc@emap.com, quoting priority code "The Learning Clinic". Click here to view the Patient Safety Congress website where you can view a full list of speakers. December 2009 VitalPAC goes live at Western Sussex Hospitals NHS TrustTwo wards at Worthing Hospital have started using VitalPAC. Erringham Ward and the Acute Medical Unit are testing the system for the next six months to assess its clinical and technical efficacy. Dr Peter Greengross, TLC Medical Director, said "We are delighted that the trust will be using VitalPAC on two busy wards handling patients with high risk conditions. The trust has worked very closely with TLC to install the system with impressive results as soon as it was switched on." Luton and Dunstable goes paperlessFollowing the completion of ward staff training, two wards at Luton and Dunstable Hospital have removed paper observation charts and switched entirely to electronic capture and analysis of vital signs data. Julia Sharman, TLC Sales Director, has been overseeing the successful deployment at the trust. She commented "It is fantastic to be able to operate VitalPAC in an organisation with a leading role in patient safety. We are confident that VitalPAC will reinforce the excellent work that staff already do." November 2009 University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire win prize for use of VitalPACUniversity Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust has won an ICT Excellence Award for its use of VitalPAC. Trust representatives were presented with the prize for best value added project at an awards dinner in November. The trust's entry detailed the many and varied benefits VitalPAC has brought to staff and patients at the Trust since its introduction in early 2008. Among the impressive achievements reported was that 10 patients a week are avoiding admission to ITU thanks to the improved monitoring and intervention brought about by VitalPAC. Those patients who do have to be admitted to the unit now have a significantly reduced length of stay. Click here to view more details on the award. VitalPAC nominated for national awardsTwo trusts that have installed VitalPAC across their sites have been nominated for high profile national awards for their use of the system. University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire have been announced as a finalist in the e-Government National Awards 2009. The trust has been nominated in the "Leadership & Professionalism" category for the rollout of VitalPAC across the organisation. UK Government CIO John Suffolk will reveal the winners on 20th January at a Ministerial dinner at the City of London's Guildhall. Meanwhile, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust has been nominated in three categories of the Patient Safety Awards 2010. The trust's use of VitalPAC to help reduce MRSA and its more generic role in identifying and escalating care for deteriorating patients have both been recognised as outstanding achievements. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel on 5th February. Click here to view the e-Government National Awards website. Click here to view the Patient Safety Awards website. Walsall Hospitals signs contract for CRMSWalsall Hospitals NHS Trust has signed a three year contract for TLC's Consultant Resource Management System. CRMS is a web-based application which helps consultants manage their job plans and diaries, making it easier to keep accurate records of their work, book annual leave and compile reports for revalidation. The system is being used initially by 100 consultants with a view to extending to other grades over the next twelve months. October 2009 VitalPAC version 1.2 releasedThe Learning Clinic has released the latest version of its ground-breaking VitalPAC system to NHS hospitals in England. The new version features improved user interfaces and touch screen capabilities, faster performance, more robust connectivity and additional functionality such as the ability to strike-through observations, record cardiac rhythms and manage intravenous cannulae. TLC Technical Director Roy Margolis said "This new release provides our clients with enhanced features that build on VitalPAC's user-friendly design, intelligent decision support and technical superiority. Clinicians will particularly welcome the faster speed and new applications that will help them provide higher quality and safer care for their patients." VitalPAC goes live at Luton and Dunstable NHS Foundation TrustLuton and Dunstable NHS Foundation Trust has started using VitalPAC on its Acute Medical Admissions Unit and Respiratory Ward. Staff will be dual recording on paper charts whilst they learn how to use the new electronic, wireless system. September 2009 VitalPAC helps identify patients with Swine FluIn a ground-breaking trial being undertaken with specialists at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals, VitalPAC is being used to identify patients admitted to hospital with signs of possible infection with H1/N1 influenza. The Trust already screens everyone admitted to hospital for MRSA. Using VitalPAC the Trust can now quickly identify anyone with a high temperature and raised breathing rate to identify who should also be screened for H1N1. The trial is ongoing and further results will be available in due course. VitalPAC on show at the Society for Acute Medicine Annual ConferenceThe 2009 Annual Conference of the Society for Acute Medicine (SAM) will be held at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham from 1-2 October. The conference "provides an opportunity to reflect on the rapid progress made in the evolution of acute medicine". VitalPAC is pleased to be sponsoring the event and will be on display on stand 12 in the main delegate area. We look forward to meeting a wide range of people working in acute medicine with an interest in patient safety. Click here to view the SAM website. August 2009 NHS chief praises VitalPACThe Chief Executive of NHS West Midlands, Ian Cumming, praised VitalPAC when he recently visited University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW). Reported by the Coventry Telegraph, Mr Cumming said 'This is a great example of how innovation can improve patient safety and care.' UHCW is one of the largest VitalPAC sites, with over 900 beds equipped with the system. Since its rollout across the main hospital site, clinicians have reported more consistent monitoring and earlier identification of deteriorating patients. Click here to view the Coventry Telegraph article. July 2009 Shrewsbury and Telford signs up for PatientFlowThe Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust has signed a contract with TLC to install the company's innovative bed management and capacity planning system - VitalPAC PatientFlow. As well as standard bed management functions available on desktop PCs, PatientFlow allows nurses to update information on patient location, transfers and discharges, consultant and specialty information using hand-held VitalPAC bedside devices. Because it is regularly updated by clinical staff, PatientFlow is much more accurate and up-to-date than conventional systems. The initial contract will see PatientFlow introduced at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford with an option to extend across the whole Trust at a later date. VitalPAC extended at ImperialCharing Cross Hospital, part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, has become the first Hospital to use an extended version of VitalPAC that enables clinicians to review their response to patient escalations. The system tracks the appropriateness of the alert and the time taken to respond to the call. With the system operating successfully at Charing Cross, VitalPAC has now been deployed on a further two wards, the Acute Admissions Unit and a Respiratory ward at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington. June 2009 
TLC is named HealthInvestor's IT Provider of the YearThe Learning Clinic has been named as HealthInvestor's IT provider of the year. The company was recognised for VitalPAC, an innovative system which helps hospital staff identify and treat patients at risk of deterioration, infection or VTE. Click here to view more details on the award. Click here to view the HealthInvestor website. Patient location records improved thanks to VitalPACPatientFlow - VitalPAC's innovative bed management system - is now fully managing details of patient location at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire. The system significantly aids the challenging process of bed management, a crucial part of efficient healthcare delivery. Whereas traditional bed management systems rely on administrative staff to keep them up to date - leading to just 70 per cent accuracy - VitalPAC updates patient location each time a nurse takes a set of observations. This leads to patient location records of 95 per cent accuracy, so helping to increase throughput and reduce length of stay. VitalPAC at NHS Confederation and NHS Innovation ExpoVitalPAC has been on display at two leading health conferences this month. In mid-June, visitors to the NHS Confederation annual conference in Liverpool had an opportunity to learn more about the system. One week later, attendees of the NHS Innovation Expo in London got their chance to get to know about VitalPAC. The Learning Clinic was hosted on the Microsoft stand as an official partner. At a packed seminar TLC Medical Director Dr Peter Greengross spoke of the benefits of the system. Managers from University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire also spoke of how the system has made a difference at their organisation. Two hospitals sign contracts for CRMSTwo hospitals have signed new contracts for The Learning Clinic's Consultant Resource Management System (CRMS). Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust have extended their contract for the system by a year, and Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust by three years. CRMS is a web-based application which helps manage job plans and diary management, so making it easier for clinicians to efficiently manage their workloads. The system can be integrated with VitalPAC, allowing doctors to easily view real-time data on each of their patients. May 2009 More Trusts adopt VitalPACWestern Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust and Luton and Dunstable Hospital NHS Foundation Trust have both signed contracts to install VitalPAC on their wards. Western Sussex is a newly formed Trust incorporating the old Worthing and Southlands and St Richard's NHS Trusts. It now has over 1000 beds and will initially be using the system on its emergency assessment and oncology wards. Luton and Dunstable has almost 600 beds and is well known for its work in the patient safety area. Its Chief Executive Stephen Ramsden is the NHS Patient Safety Campaign Director. The system is being installed on the Acute Care and Respiratory Units. VitalPAC helps control MRSANew evidence from Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust was presented at the Performance Improvement Network in London on 7th May showing that VitalPAC improves the control of Hospital Acquired Infections, particularly MRSA. The data shows that when VitalPAC was introduced onto the Trust's Medical Assessment Unit, compliance with MRSA screening increased from 70% to 97%, contributing to a fall in bacteraemia rates amongst medical patients of 78% over a five year period. VitalPAC on show at the NHS Confederation Annual ConferenceDelegates to this year's NHS Confederation Annual Conference will be able to try out the VitalPAC system during the two day event from 10-12 June. VitalPAC will be on display on stand H49 and we look forward to meeting a wide range of people working in the NHS or with just an interest in patient safety. The Annual Conference is one of the foremost healthcare events of the year attracting a wide range of attendees from the NHS, private and Third Sectors. Click here to view the conference website. April 2009 VitalPAC goes live at Royal SurreyFollowing contract signing in February, the first two wards at The Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Trust will go live in April. The Medical Admissions Unit and Clandon Ward will be evaluating the system for the next six months before wider roll-out. TLC Technical Director Roy Margolis said "We have been delighted at the level of support we have received from the Trust, enabling us to localise, test and implement the system rapidly and demonstrating how easily VitalPAC can integrate into legacy systems." VitalPAC records over 2 million observations and countingAs VitalPAC is adopted by more and more NHS Trusts, the number of complete observations captured by the system is increasing by over 200,000 per month. More than 2 million observation sets have now been taken with the system, generating a unique database of vital signs that can be linked to outcome and other data sets. The VitalPAC database is being used by researchers to develop improved algorithms for Early Warning Scores and to assess the systems impact on healthcare delivery and patient outcomes. Claire Read joins TLC as Editorial ManagerClaire Read has taken up the role of Editorial Manager at The Learning Clinic. Claire is an experienced healthcare writer and editor whose work has appeared in a wide range of national and local publications. She will work on creating product documentation as well as on internal and external communications. Claire joins TLC from Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Trust, where as internal communications manager she was responsible for publications and patient information literature. In the past, Claire worked with TLC to develop a number of the company's e-learning modules and is currently writing a chapter on effective communication for a forthcoming book on quality and safety in healthcare. March 2009 Portsmouth Hospitals wins HCAI Technology Innovation AwardPortsmouth Hospitals is one of only ten NHS Trusts that have been recognised for their outstanding contribution to fighting infection. The Trust has been awarded a grant of £150,000 by the HCAI Technology Innovation Programme. This is a joint initiative by the Department of Health and the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency to speed up the development and adoption of new technologies to help fight healthcare associated infections (HCAIs). The Trust intends to use the funding to work with The Learning Clinic to further develop the VitalPAC system to ensure continued improvements in the management and prevention of HCAIs. Click here to view the PASA website. VitalPAC accredited as a Medical DeviceThe Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has approved VitalPAC as a Class 1 Medical Device. This provides reassurance to our clients and patients that the system complies with new essential requirements and satisfies the regulator about safety, performance and specifications. Medical Device accreditation means that VitalPAC software will now bear the CE marking of conformity. Click here to view the MHRA website. Julia Sharman joins TLC as Sales DirectorJulia Sharman has joined The Learning Clinic as Sales Director. Julia is a fully qualified nurse and holds a post grad diploma and MSc in clinical research. She trained at the Royal Marsden Hospital before joining GlaxoSmithKline as an Oncology Support Nurse, spending 8 years in clinical research and business development, managing phase I – III research trials and completing an MSc in clinical research. Prior to joining TLC, Julia worked for Dr Foster intelligence, developing relationships and business opportunities within the NHS for their new business in NHS information tools. During this time she also completed a 9 month secondment to NHS East Midlands as Head of Performance Intelligence. TLC exhibiting at the Patient Safety CongressThe Learning Clinic is pleased to be exhibiting at this year's Patient Safety Congress to be held on 30th April and 1st May 2009 in Birmingham. The Congress is one of the foremost events in the patient safety calendar, attracting around 1500 delegates. VitalPAC will be on display on stand D29 and we look forward to demonstrating the system to all those interested in reducing avoidable deaths and complications amongst hospital patients. Click here to view the conference website. February 2009 Royal Surrey signs contract for VitalPACThe Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Trust is the latest hospital to contract with The Learning Clinic to pilot VitalPAC on its wards. The system is due to go live in April 2009. The Trust has over 500 beds and employs 2,800 staff, serving a population of 1.2 million people. VitalPAC will be piloted on two wards to demonstrate how it integrates with and supports clinical and IT systems. King's integrates VitalPAC into its EPRKing's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has worked with The Learning Clinic to enable clinicians to view VitalPAC data through its iSoft Electronic Patient Record. The new application means that vital signs records and alerts can be accessed with a single click so that staff do not have to log into and out of different systems. This development is a further demonstration of how easily VitalPAC integrates into any legacy or planned IT system. King's are now putting together a business case for Trust-wide roll-out. Click here to view the article in eHealth Insider. VitalPAC PatientFlow launches at Coventry and WarwickshireThe Learning Clinic's new real-time bed management system, VitalPAC PatientFlow, has been launched at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire. It will provide the Trust with a powerful new tool for operational management, capacity planning and improving throughput. The innovative system maintains an accurate record of patient location, specialty, consultant, clinical status and expected transfer or discharge dates. It can be fully integrated with VitalPAC's point of care clinical system. This means that patient details and risk status are updated in real time, linked directly to the delivery of clinical care. VitalPAC is popular with nurses, reports Nursing TimesAn article in Nursing Times reports on VitalPAC's continuing roll-out nationwide. It highlights recent research demonstrating how easily it integrates into ward routines and its popularity with nursing staff. The article quotes the head of nursing for general and emergency medicine at King's, who states that "the new system is proving popular with nursing staff at King's and is freeing up time for nurses to concentrate more on what they come to work to do: treat patients". Click here to view the article in Nursing Times. January 2009 New study shows that VitalPAC saves time and improves accuracyA paper by Mohammed et al published in the 8 January edition of the British Journal of Nursing confirms that VitalPAC significantly improves the accuracy of vital sign recording and Early Warning Score calculation. It also reduces the time taken to derive the EWS by 35%. Importantly, the views of nurses using the system shifted significantly in favour of VitalPAC compared with traditional pen and paper systems. This paper adds to the growing body of evidence that demonstrates how VitalPAC improves the quality and safety of health care. Click here to view the abstract. VitalPAC featured on Microsoft NHS Resource CentreTLC works closely with Microsoft to ensure that the VitalPAC system adopts the Common User Interface conventions. As a leading developer of hand-held wireless clinical applications, it has also contributed to the development of these standards. A new article on the Microsoft NHS Resource Centre website describes how the system works and how adoption of CUI principles means that using VitalPAC is intuitive, consistent with other clinical systems and easy to understand. Click here to view the article. December 2008 VitalPAC extended at Imperial, King's and Royal Berkshire NHS TrustsFollowing the successful installation of VitalPAC on selected wards at Charing Cross, King's College and the Royal Berkshire Hospitals, the system will be rolled out onto five other wards over the next three months, including the first wards at St Mary's Hospital in London. Roger Killen, TLC Managing Director, said "I am delighted that these major hospitals are extending their use of VitalPAC. In our experience, the more widely that VitalPAC is used, the easier and quicker it is to realise hospital-wide improvements in patient safety and care." McLaren Applied Technologies collaborates with TLC at Portsmouth HospitalsThe Learning Clinic and Portsmouth Hospitals have announced a joint pilot with McLaren Applied Technologies to trial McLaren's innovative mSense telemetry system. mSense can receive wireless feeds from any clinical monitoring device, enabling continuous mobile observation of higher risk patients. Combined with VitalPAC's unique capability to identify deteriorating patients and escalate care accordingly, the system could provide an elegant solution to the management of sick patients in pre, peri and post hospital settings. Click here to view the McLaren Applied Technologies website. November 2008 TLC wins contract to develop an Electronic Discharge SummaryThe Learning Clinic has been appointed by Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust to develop an Electronic Discharge Summary. The new system will capture information from TLC's innovative VitalPAC system that is being rolled out across the Trust. Combined with more traditional data sources, the new EDS will provide GPs with up-to-date, timely information about their patients' recent admissions to hospital. TLC exhibiting at NICE 2008 conferenceThe Learning Clinic is pleased to be supporting this year's tenth anniversary conference organised by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. TLC will be at stand 18 near the main refreshment area where you will be able to see demonstrations of VitalPAC and find out how it drives compliance with NICE guidance. Click here to view the conference website. Addenbrookes rolls out VitalPAC to two wardsCambridge University Hospitals Foundation Trust has successfully installed the VitalPAC system onto its Medical Short-stay Emergency Unit and its Acute Elderly Admissions ward at Addenbrookes Hospital. The system is being closely evaluated to identify how VitalPAC improves the quality and safety of patient care and in particular its ability to demonstrate compliance with best infection control practice. UHCW hosts TLC's annual User Group ForumThe Learning Clinic was delighted to organise VitalPAC 2008, its annual User Group Forum for existing and prospective clients at the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire on 12 November. Delegates from 15 organisations heard presentations from a variety of NHS Trusts that have introduced the system as well as from Microsoft and McLaren who demonstrated examples of how VitalPAC and associated technologies are likely to develop. October 2008 Roger Killen to speak at Innov'08Roger Killen, Managing Director of The Learning Clinic, has been invited as keynote speaker at the Innov'08 - Weaving Innovation Into Health conference to be held in Wellington, New Zealand from 3rd to 5th November 2008. Roger will be presenting a workshop on Making Innovation Happen in Healthcare and will be delivering the keynote presentation on VitalPAC as an innovative tool to assure patient safety. Click here to view the conference website VitalPAC shortlisted for BT eHealth Insider awardsTwo NHS Trusts that have installed VitalPAC in their hospitals have been nominated in two categories of this year's BT eHealth Insider awards. University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust has been shortlisted as one of the three contenders for the 'Best Use of IM&T (Information Management & Technology) to Promote Patient Safety' award. Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust has been shortlisted for the 'Best Use of Wireless Healthcare' award. The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on 17th November. Click here to view the eHealth Insider web site. News archive Click here to view our News archive. |
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