Independent Living Connectivity/Mobile Devices Project
How can we best support our teams in hospital environments or the community to stay connected?
I am a Service Manager for Independent Living in the North West. Towards the end of 2019 when things were relatively ‘normal’, I was asked to attend some meetings with the Tech-Enabled Change team in I&DT (Information and Design technology) to look at ways in which Independent Living (IL) and IT could work better together.
The initial meetings were centered around a variety of subjects, one being connectivity for our remote workers. This has always been a huge issue within independent living, with many teams not being able to access even their basic information including their emails.
We had some great discussions that were enlightening for both myself and my IT colleagues. Our perceptions of how things happen are often very different to the reality.
Shortly afterwards the Mobile and Devices project was set up. I was offered a part time secondment opportunity for 6 months to provide insight for the IL teams, working alongside Renette Snyman as business analyst, with Michael Docherty as the project lead.
We had already gathered a lot of information from various operational teams, regarding their connectivity issues and the challenges that they face with their IT. All of this information was collated with many of the points duplicated across the country. This gave us a well-rounded view of the main issues that needed addressing.
During this time, we also carried out some site visits in England, Scotland and Wales. To meet with the teams face to face, introduce ourselves and listen to their concerns was invaluable. Some of these visits were also attended by members of the desktop support teams.
There were some obvious issues that could be sorted out quickly by either, contacting the NHS IT teams on site or some user training.
We attended a seminar that was hosted by NHS digital which was based around digital discharges. It was an interesting day with some good contacts made, there was mutual interest to pilot some collaborative working — this has since been put on hold due to Covid-19. We are confident this will reform in the next few months, hopefully, the next stage of this process will include one of our sites.
During this time, we identified some IL teams that would be interested in piloting some tablets. A form was devised to gather feedback and we worked alongside other teams in I&DT to ensure the users were going to receive a good experience when using the tablets. All of the tablets would have InTune installed and be delivered with a case and Bluetooth keyboard.
The project then had to pause briefly while we all adjusted to the new ways of working during the pandemic. IT were working hard to ensure all homeworkers had the correct equipment and knowledge to work efficiently.
I was concentrating on my operational teams, ensuring they were safe and supported, whilst trying to juggle our commissioned commitments.
‘Moving forward’
After a few weeks we all agreed that the project should continue in a slightly different way than initially planned. We quickly arranged for some tablets to be delivered to my home address. We signed up four coordinators in my immediate area, they were excited to be included and committed to providing full and regular feedback for the project.
The tablets were then distributed across the teams:
Covid-19 response service — Salford, Manchester
Covid-19 response service — Central Manchester
A discharge service that changed its operating model from discharge and ongoing home support, to supporting patients with their audiology needs in line with the requirements of the NHS trust during Covid-19 — based in Trafford, Manchester
A support at home service that had to rethink the way in which they supported their local community without putting themselves at risk. They are now providing doorstep food and medication deliveries with safe and well phone calls — based in Halton, Cheshire.
This has worked so well, the benefits of having the tablets were immediate. Some of the teams were unable to use an NHS office due to the social distancing restrictions, having a tablet enabled them to access their essential information using data if necessary. Just being able to sit elsewhere and do their work was incredible for their well-being. Keeping up to date with their emails and the People Support alerts enabled them to be reactive to the ever-changing situation.
The tablets have been used for virtual interviews, online training, team catch-ups, data input, the list goes on.
The pilot was planned around how we could use the tablets to support teams and service users. I feel that we underestimated how much the teams themselves would benefit from having the option of data or Wi-Fi.
We are looking into the teams having virtual safe and well calls with service users, this would allow the teams to see their service user. This is good for morale for them and the service user, it also allows a slight insight into the home so that changes to their environment can be noted or changes to the service user.
The project has recently expanded to other sites across the UK. We are discussing how multiple users can use one tablet. We are also in talks with the Data and CRM team to have a mobile version of BRM at some point in the future.
The project is a great opportunity to think differently about how services are delivered and how our teams work. We have talked at length about how we link IT and IL together when a service is first discussed to ensure the correct IT is in place from the outset. This shows innovation within the Red Cross and to our commissioners.
My secondment has been extended and I am thrilled. It has been a great experience to see how different departments link in to deliver a project and to be a part of service improvement — also to meet more of my fantastic Red Cross colleagues.
Cross directorate working is definitely the future.
