Virtual wards allow patients to get the care they need at home safely and conveniently, rather than being in hospital.
A virtual ward is a team of professionals working to manage a group of patients in the community. It allows patients to get the care they need at home, safely and conveniently, rather than being in hospital. Using a combination of remote monitoring by healthcare professionals and home visits, virtual wards can help prevent hospital admissions or allow for patients to go home earlier, whilst still receiving support.
Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Integrated Care System (BOB ICS) is supporting the development, implementation and increasing the capacity of the current virtual ward provisions across Bucks, Berks and Oxon.
TheHill is part of a team of partners including Oxfordshire AHSN and Channel 3 are supporting Oxford University Hospitals, Oxford Health, PML, Berkshire Health, Royal Berkshire Hospital, Buckinghamshire to put this service in place.
Some of the work TheHill has been doing includes:
- Understanding clinical needs and developing technical specifications for technology to meet those needs – this supports a robust procurement process for enabling technology.
- Comparing and contrasting Standard Operating Procedures across the provider Trusts to help share best practice and understand points of difference and similarities.
- Working with clinical teams and patients to understand how the service can be made as inclusive as possible.
- Producing a Digital Inclusion Report for BOB ICS to share with partners.
For further information about this project:
Please email Danielle Bird via [email protected].