NHS Emergency Department Sees Improvements Thanks To Digital Solution

Emergency departments are the front line of healthcare, providing critical care to patients in need. In these fast-paced and high-pressure environments, efficient and streamlined operations are vital. Efficient coordination between healthcare professionals and porters is crucial for ensuring patients receive prompt care. Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust embarked on their journey to digitise the ED portering management system to meet the evolving demand of a rapidly changing healthcare landscape in four simple touches.

The Need For Change

Manual paper-based systems often caused delays, miscommunication, and administrative errors. As the demand for healthcare services continues to rise, the limitations of paper-based systems became increasingly apparent. The inefficiencies in coordinating patient transfers, managing equipment, and communicating urgent requests posed challenges to staff productivity and patient care. Recognising these obstacles, Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust decided to integrate MyPorter, a digital portering solution, with touchscreen devices to enable porter requests using the solutions’ Wizard Task Creator - a simple four-touch process to send a detailed task to a Porter - to address these issues head-on.

Enhanced Capacity Management

As a fast-paced healthcare environment, Emergency Departments often face resource constraints including limited porter availability. The integration of touchscreens with a digital portering system enables the trust to optimise capacity within ED. The system provides real-time visibility into portering requests, allowing for efficient allocation of resources. The system proactively encourages staff to identify bottlenecks and allocate portering services based on demands, further enhancing capacity management.

David May, Deputy Head of Facilities Logistics said “One of the key things that we find works very well is what we call push and pull. If an area increases activity quickly or on a short period of time the system would highlight that and we would put porters into the area”.

Dave Houghton, Interim Portering Postal & Switchboard Manager, said “It has enabled us to allocate porters to the right area quicker. It has also increased patient flow because now we have the right porter, in the right place, at the right time”

Helen Ingleson, Senior Matron, said “I would highly recommend MyPorter in ED. We’ve seen such a massive improvement; from jobs that have been requested, we can keep an audit trail and we always know where the porters are, where they are on the job. (Also), time spent with patients instead of chasing about looking after them (nurses no longer doing porter tasks), it’s just been absolutely amazing”.

Improved Efficiency

The digital portering management system offers numerous features that enhance operational efficiency in emergency departments. It enables staff to request portering services electronically with only a 4-touch process, eliminating the need for manual paperwork, speeding up the process needed within rapid and reactive environments such as ED. Mark Vipond, Porter Supervisor said “The touchscreens are really simple. You can set them up how the departments want them set up and literally in the touch of three or four buttons”.

Jay Choudry, Porter Supervisor, “MyPorter has brought a lot of efficiencies to the department. It helps us prioritise what tasks should be done at what point of the day” and continues to highlight how easy it is to put a porter request ever since the transition using the touchscreen saying, “It’s as simple as the name suggests – it's a touchscreen and it’s touch, touch, and go”.

Graham Taylor, Portering Officer, said “The data that we can produce in MyPorter enables to see our peaks and our troughs”. “We’re looking at efficiencies all the time. Ways to shave even seconds here and there. On average we’ve figured out (using the data from MyPorter) that we’ve saved 1 and a half minutes per task”.

Teamwork makes the dream work

The transition from a paper-based system to a digital system presented the team with challenges but the team made the transition effortless by working together. Zara Ridge, Head of Facilities Management, said “I think one of the things I’m really proud of is the team and how well they’ve worked with the system. Going from a very manual paper-based system to an electronic system and they’ve done that effortlessly. I think (we’ve seen) such hard work from everybody, so it’s been a really really positive step and something that we want to continue and build with MyPorter and Global View (GV Healthcare)”.

Get in touch today to see how MyPorter touchscreen can transform patient flow in your Emergency Department. Email myporter@globalviewsystems.co.uk or call +44 (0) 1482 772536

Transforming Patient Experience in Radiology and Beyond Through Portering

Before implementing MyPorter, a digital portering management tool, Sunderland Royal Hospital experienced many connectivity issues due to using a Wi-Fi system that resulted in a lot of failed tasks going from the helpdesk to the porters. They needed a system that ensured the porters received the tasks on time with the information they need.

Collaborating with GV Healthcare, Sunderland Royal Hospital chose to trial MyPorter within their Radiology department – using it to send ‘text messages’ to two-way radios carried by the Porters. Claire Dodds, Hotel Service Manager, CHoICE Facilities Services said “we chose MyPorter over other solutions because of the reporting system we were shown, (the reports) were really really good and also the handhelds (two-way radios) were easy to use.”

“We trialled MyPorter in the Radiology department because we didn’t have a system in there that allocated tasks directly to the porters. It was a very successful trial. The Radiographers loved it and the Porters did so (we) rolled it out to the rest of the hospital because of the success of that trial”, she continues.

MyPorter has also enabled staff to focus on more important tasks, such as patient care and treatment, rather than spending valuable time tracking down a porter to collect a patient.

Amanda Pells, Plain Film Modality Lead within the Radiology department, said “MyPorter has more visibility. Visibility of where our Porters are, visibility of where patients are in the system.

We can look in MyPorter and see this patient has been allocated to a Porter”. Juliet Bwanya, Senior Radiographer, adds “We don’t have patients lining up in the corridor and once we’ve finished with the patient we send them back on MyPorter, so a Porter is already alerted that somebody needs to go back”.

By leveraging cutting-edge technology and working together, the hospital has been able to enhance the patient experience and improve outcomes. Mark Turner, Portering & Security Manager at CHoICE Facilities Services, shares that “there’s been a massive improvement in response times. Particularly now that the system can identify where a Porter is on their task.”

Claire Dodds, Hotel Service Manager, said “Now that we’ve got MyPorter, we can look and see that we’ve increased throughput, our throughput has increased about 28 percent. She adds, “Morale has gone up. Porters aren’t receiving more jobs than another Porter, it’s a fairer system and the reporting system is absolutely brilliant”.

Dan Wheeler, Porter at CHoICE Facilities Services, follows with “So the biggest change since MyPorter has been (installed) is the efficiency. In Portering you need to be efficient, you need to get there quickly, you need to perform your duty quickly and then you need to move on to the next one.”

Wayne Carr, Director CHoICE Facilities Services, said “MyPorter has delivered everything CHoICE wanted and more. I would say to other Directors that if you’re looking for a high-quality flexible portering management solution then MyPorter fits the bill perfectly. GV Healthcare have been excellent to work with and have a shared vision with CHoICE all the way through the process. I would recommend it to anybody that’s looking for a similar type of system.”

Watch the full video to see their experience of MyPorter and its full impact within Sunderland Royal Hospital.

To talk to a member of the team about arranging a visit to Sunderland Royal Hospital, please email myporter@globalviewsystems.co.uk

Dublin man wins International Porter of The Year Award

From left to right: Mark Edwards, Craig McElroy, Ilie Pop

It’s February 21st 2023 and an unsuspecting Craig McElroy, Porter at Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital, is sat at a table beside his family and manager at a day of celebration for Healthcare Porters in London, England. Each award passes for such things as ‘Team of The Year’ and ‘Outstanding Contribution to Patient Experience’ unbeknown to Craig he is about to be named ‘International Porter of The Year’. Organisers were inspired by Craig’s nomination, sent in by his manager Ilie Pop – Portering Service Manager also of Beaumont Hospital, coupled with Ilie and Craig’s enthusiasm for the awards and for the celebration of a role that is often overlooked of its importance by that of the work of others within a hospital. It was these things which saw the organisers, GV Healthcare, who were working in association with the NHS in England to put on the ceremony, to create the bespoke award for Craig – deciding to keep it top secret until the day of the event, which saw Craig burst with excitement as his name was read out. Today sees Craig presented with his trophy in front of his colleagues and senior management – where he is known as “The Red Bull of the Portering Department” - at a specially arranged meeting at Beaumont Hospital, where he received a rapturous applause when going up to collect his award. Craig said: “It feels great – I was just happy to be nominated. I love working in this hospital and the people I work with, and being a Porter is great – it’s a gift. I was a little embarrassed (being presented the award in front of colleagues) but I was happy to see that they were all happy for me and cheering me on. I couldn’t be happier. I love giving them (the patients) the finest of service and getting the thanks (from them) at the end. I have great banter with the patients and I’ll just continue to treat them with the best of respect and love”

Craig McElroy with Beaumont Hospital Porters

Craig’s nomination came hot on the heels of him being named ‘Porter of The Year’ at Beaumont – all the more impressive with it being in his first year as a Porter. His manager Ilie Pop said: “His attitude in work has been the highest ever and the compliments Craig receives every day are the best we have heard in a long time. If you could multiply him going forward, delivery of service would be of a very high standard at all times. He’s not had a single day off sick, he is complimented each and every day he’s here and every team in the hospital wishes to work with him”. GV Healthcare’s Mark Edwards, who presented the award to Craig alongside Ilie, said: “It’s fantastic to be able to celebrate unsung healthcare heroes like Craig. We’ve been in contact with a number of hospitals across Ireland for a number of months now and have seen first-hand how the Irish really show support for their Porters and are keen to shout about the great, often underappreciated work they do. We’ve seen a number of hospitals in Ireland realising how much impact an efficient Portering service can have on the services provided by Doctors and Nurses, which has seen hospitals looking into investment in Portering to the benefit of patients with improved flow of patients through the hospital, alongside benefits to the Porters in terms of their wellbeing”.

Back in February, the Finalists attended a live conference during the day which saw them hear guest speakers talk to them about the future of portering, team work and portering peers who talked best practice and the need for Governments to acknowledge the expertise of portering with recognised qualifications. Guests then dined on a three-course meal before the live awards ceremony celebrated the great work done by these unsung heroes of the NHS, HSE and every other health board and institution present.

Fiona Daly - National Deputy Director of Estates at NHS England said at the event: “Today’s event has been brilliant, here, recognizing all the great work that is happening across healthcare with the portering services within Estates and Facilities – during times like the pandemic, the likes of the porters, the cleaners, the security guards – they kept hospitals going. They are the beating heart and it has been amazing to be here today recognizing all of their efforts not just for during the pandemic, but now as we move towards a period of recovery”.