Coventry & Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust extends its use of innovative technology to improve patient safety

Coventry & Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust (CWPT) has been working in partnership with, healthcare technology organisation, Oxehealth, to improve patient safety in mental health, using optical sensors.
Initially centred on improving dementia care, CWPT deployed Oxehealth technology to reduce the risk of falls on two inpatient dementia wards.
The unique solution acts as a Digital Care Assistant for frontline staff, improving the quality of care for vulnerable patients and supporting staff workflows.
The new technology has been successfully adopted by staff in dementia wards to reduce fall rates. 100% of ward staff reported that the system had improved patient safety on the ward at night, with 79% reporting it has directly enabled them to prevent a fall.1
Ward Manager, Linda Fitzpatrick, said; “We have seen a significant reduction in the number of falls on the ward since adopting the Oxehealth system. It’s our sixth member of staff on the ward at night.”
CWPT and Oxehealth have since worked closely together to further develop activity tracking solutions that enable staff to keep inpatients safe, especially at night.
Following the success of the programme, CWPT has agreed to roll out the Oxehealth solution across its Mental Health Inpatient Services at the Caludon Centre. Since July 2018, 65 bedrooms across the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and Male and Female Acute inpatient wards have been equipped with Oxehealth technology.
Oxehealth’s have recently obtained European medical device certification for its vital signs measurement software (more here). This enables staff to use the Digital Care Assistant to measure pulse rate and breathing rate to medical levels of accuracy without entering the room, a capability the PICU and Acute wards are looking forward to benefiting from.
Chief Nurse for Coventry & Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust, Tracey Wrench, said; “We are delighted with Oxehealth’s unique system which has helped further improve on the great strides we have already made to reduce the risk of falls.
“This innovative technology supports our staff to manage the risk of patient safety by reporting on a number of activities and physical health markers.”
Oxehealth will act as an additional tool to complement nursing observations and enhance quality of care, patient safety and experience, and staff safety. The solution will help the team at CWPT to be even more responsive to patients’ needs whilst reducing serious incidents.
Staff in the Caludon Centre are excited to benefit from the solution, inspired by the experience of their colleagues using the Oxehealth system on the dementia wards.
“Our teams at the Manor and Caludon Hospitals feel comfortable and trust in Oxehealth’s technology to support them in improving the patient experience.
“The partnership working with Oxehealth has given credibility to the use of technology in enhancing patient care across the Trust.” comments Ade Odunlade, Former Associate Director of Operations for Acute Services.
Oxehealth’s CEO, Hugh Lloyd-Jukes, commented, “We are delighted to extend our partnership with CWPT. The vital ingredient in mental health care is contact time between staff and the patients. Our Digital Care Assistant pays attention to every room and alerts staff to patients who might need them before their next scheduled check. The system gives staff more time for hands-on care, when and where they are needed most.
“We’re proud of the tremendous difference our system has made to patients and staff at CWPT’s Manor Hospital, in dementia care, and we are excited that patients and staff in the Acute pathway will now also benefit from the solution.”
About CWPTCoventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust provides a wide range of mental health, learning disability and community health services for people of all ages through in-patient, community and day clinics. The Trust also a range of specialist health services to people across the UK.
The Trust sees nearly 5,000 patients from an overall catchment area with a population of more than one million people.
You can read the Trust's press release here.
About Oxehealth LtdOxehealth gives clinicians, carers & custodians more time for hands on care where and when they are needed most. Oxehealth is an assistant for when you can't be there, paying attention to every room.
Oxehealth’s solutions can help staff prevent serious incidents, reduce the risk of falls, take spot check pulse rate & breathing rate measurements and understand patient behaviour better. Our software solutions use secure optical sensors to generate the alerts and reports clinicians, carers and custodians need, seamlessly slotted into their existing workflow. Oxehealth serves customers in mental health, police, prison, acute hospital, care home & homecare settings.
Oxehealth was the first joint spin-out of the University of Oxford’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. The company was founded by Professor Lionel Tarassenko, Head of Engineering at the University of Oxford, in 2012.1 Data drawn from survey of system users and analysis of system response time.
For further press information, please contact Hugh Lloyd-Jukes, CEO, on +44 (0) 1865 781 343 or info@oxehealth.com.