Improving communication, efficiency and patient safety at Capital, Coast and Hutt Valley District with Smartpage since 2016

About Te Whatu Ora Capital, Coast and Hutt Valley District

Capital, Coast and Hutt Valley District has over 7,500 full-time equivalent staff operating three hospitals – Wellington Regional Hospital in Newtown, Hutt Valley Hospital and Kenepuru Hospital in Porirua – and a large mental health campus based at Porirua – the Kāpiti Health Centre at Paraparaumu and Te Korowai-Whāriki.

Capital, Coast and Hutt Valley District provides a range of specialist services including neurosurgery, oncology, neonatal intensive care and community-based services including district nursing, rehabilitation services, social work, alcohol and drug services, and home support services to a population of around 900,000 people.

Outdated communication methods contribute to inefficiencies in clinical workflows

Communication challenges after-hours compromises patient safety

Patients are more vulnerable after-hours because there are fewer doctors and nurses available. After reviewing a couple of adverse events that happened after-hours, CCHV discovered that the root cause was communication problems between doctors and nurses.

Smartpage Clinical modernises communication to improve care team collaboration

Smartpage facilitates more efficient task management

After researching a number of different solutions, in 2016 CCDHB decided to implement Alcidion’s Smartpage product in both Wellington and Kenepuru Hospitals to improve communication, efficiency and patient safety.  Following the merger with HVDHB in July 2022 it was decided to extend the implementation of Alcidion’s Smartpage product to Hutt Hospital (went live in July 2023).

With the implementation of Smartpage, nurses can quickly enter task details, along with all patient information that a doctor would require. They can see that the message has been sent to the doctor, when the doctor has seen their message, and receive responses back.

Prior to the implementation of Smartpage, the primary means of communication between doctors and nurses was verbal, however, it is now captured electronically in the Smartpage system. The advantages of having an electronic record include being able to monitor tasks both in real time and from a historical perspective to understand patterns, performance and trends.

“The reporting tool in Smartpage is very useful, especially when we review a reportable event that is related to communication error or breakdown. It helps identify what the problem or issue was, and it gives us the opportunity to provide a resolution in a more efficient manner.”

– Zaffer Malik, Clinical Nurse Educator, Capital and Coast District Health Board

Smartpage also allows management staff at the hospital better visibility of their doctors’ after-hours workloads. This has allowed them to move doctors around more efficiently and distribute their time .

Smartpage is used by CCHV in over 60 wards and numerous clinical areas, with mobile orderlies dispatched to over 1500 tasks a day.

The Hospitals have provided care to 650,000 patients since implementation

Alcidion’s Smartpage solution has not only improved clinical communication in the hospital, it has also improved visibility, efficiency and above all, patient safety.

Nurses like having the ability to communicate with doctors accurately and rapidly, no matter where they are in the hospital. Doctors are saving 10 to 15 minutes per hour, as there is no longer a need to call around to try and find the nurse that paged them.

“The quick resolution of issues is now happening on a continual basis. The efficiency of the doctors getting through their messages, getting back to the nurses, and getting their work done quickly has been a critical improvement.”

– Dr Kyle Perrin, Head of Department for Medicine, Capital, Coast and Hutt Valley District

“I love Smartpage because it is easy to use, it is very efficient, and it gives transparency of care.”

– Isabella McKenzie, Registered Nurse, Capital, Coast and Hutt Valley District

Smartpage in Non-Clinical Setting

Capital and Coast and Hutt Valley has also seen significant benefits from the use of Smartpage in a non-clinical context. In their work to support the safety of hospital staff and patients, the hospital’s Security Orderlies Team (SOT) attend to over 1500 tasks a day. The team operates 24/7, using Smartpage to respond to a diverse set of tasks across all patient transfer and security calls, ranging from helicopter patient transfers, to fire and earthquake response, to environmental risks and more.

In addition to the benefits experienced through the daily management of tasks, the Security Orderlies Team use Smartpage to proactively undertake root cause analysis, and to inform decision making to create a safer and more efficient environment for Wellington Hospital staff, patients and whānau. Smartpage data was instrumental in undertaking an assessment of patient transfer delays at the request of the Radiology Department.

Initially, there was a perception that delays were caused by a lack of available orderly staff. Upon analysing the data, the SOT discovered that a larger percentage of delays were a result of patients not being ready, as well as lack of available resources such as wheelchairs or oxygen. Armed with this information, the Security Orderlies Team and Radiology department were able to jointly identify the most effective solutions to reducing delays in patient transfers.

Smartpage data also helped pinpoint from where the highest number of patient transfer delays were occurring/originating. A large majority were from a particular few locations. This enabled the SOT to work alongside staff in the key target wards to understand what the problem looked like for them and how it might be possible to make improvements.

By facilitating clearer, real-time communication between stakeholders, Smartpage gives the Security Orderlies Team a better understanding of the needs of the different stakeholders they support, and allows them to be in the best position to support the safety of the hospital’s operations as a whole.

“Smartpage has revolutionised the security orderlies’ work. Tasks are able to be prioritised and allocated. Correct equipment, method of transport and patient details are clearly visible, improving patient safety. GPS and tracking allows resource allocation to be maximised. Reporting has also been key to safety assurance, resource allocation.”

– Vanessa Broughton, Manager, Security Orderlies, Capital, Coast and Hutt Valley District