Solihull Community Services, part of Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, is rolling out an innovative new mobile working system across its teams bringing a range of benefits to staff and patients.

The offline/online system links in with the main system used by staff across a range of community services to allow them to work ‘on the go’ and free up more time to spend with patients.

The more integrated way of working will also allow staff to have access to cross-service information and up-to-date GP records (if patients have consented to their GP information being shared) while they are visiting patients so they are able to have an informed picture of their patient’s situation at their fingertips.

Lee Wootton, head of ICT business delivery at the Trust, said: “This innovation in mobile working allows staff using the system to do their clinical recording while out and about. Previously community nursing staff would have to allocate time at the end of the day to go back to the office to do the admin work of recording their patient notes on the system. Now with mobile working taking that time consuming process away they may be able to fit in a couple of additional visits to patients instead.

“The system is also of benefit to staff as they will have the patient history available at their fingertips and the system enables the storing of information between different services so the nurse on a visit can see if his or her patient has recently had physiotherapy or been to see a respiratory clinician etc.

“Another big advantage is that the nurse can also see GP records on this system, if patients have consented, as it will be downloaded on to their tablet or laptop so they can see when their patient last saw their GP and the GP’s notes from the last visit.”

Among the services currently utilising the new mobile system are Macmillan cancer nurses employed by the Trust, the continence advice service and virtual wards at Solihull Hospital. The Balsall Common district nursing and IV therapy teams are also currently piloting the technology and if successful it will be implemented across all district nursing teams.

Lee added: “The IT team at the Trust has constructed templates that support the teams so they are not having to write reams of notes but instead are filling in a template form. This is then automatically uploaded to the main system. We are also looking at all community staff using the system having tablets as that is the more appropriate device for mobile working rather than carrying a laptop around but that is in the pilot stage at the moment.”

Vanessa Wort, head nurse at Solihull Hospital and clinical lead for community services, said the new mobile system is an innovation which will bring major benefits to her teams.

She said: “Mobile working allows staff working in the community on a daily basis the ability to access and record information on the move and in a timely fashion which creates such major benefits to the services we provide and most importantly will allow nurses and health visitors to spend more time with patients.

“We are already seeing the value of this new way of working through the teams currently using the system and there is great excitement at seeing it rolled out across Solihull Community Services.”