How digitalisation in portering is enabling data-driven decisions

Leighton Hospital shares the success of their portering department documenting their journey to a new digital portering management system. The move to digitalisation enables data-driven decision making, resulting in increased portering productivity, efficiency and leading to high levels of patient care since the transformation.

Dawn Pyatt, Facilities Manager said “We are more reliable, we are more effective. We attend jobs quicker. If there’s any issues, we’re able to pause a job and go back later. We can give reassurances that we’re coming back later. What MyPorter has been able to show is the peaks and troughs throughout the day so what we have done is we recruited where we’ve seen big hikes with tasks which made the porters listened to. It’s helped them with their workload so that’s where it was concentrated on the most and that’s where we’ve seen the benefits the most.”

She continues to say “We’re able to give reliable data to the Trust, give them reassurance of what we’re doing. How the portering team are working. We’ve saved walking time for the porters so looking after their health and well-being. We’re able to deal with complaints quicker and resolve any issues. So all round, it’s been excellent.”

The new system has made it easier to identify need for demand and resource, allowing better planning throughout the day and focus on the porters’ well-being by ensuring to reduce any unnecessary walking time.

Kevin Morgan, Porter, said “It helped us achieve the goals, recordings and save any arguments that say that the porter hasn’t attended, or I phoned up. I’d recommend it hundred percent.”

Watch the full video to see Leighton Hospital’s journey to digitalisation.

If you’re interested in talking to a member of the Leighton Hospital about arranging a visit, please email myporter@globalviewsystems.co.uk

Stepping Hill Hospital improving portering efficiency through data-driven decision making

A feature video documenting the success of the portering department at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport is now available to view – featuring how the team there moved from their old ways of working to a new digital system, using the data it provides to improve collaboration with clinicians and better patient care.

Claire Gibson, Estates & Facilities Matron (former Clinical Ward Nurse), said “We have got a number of efficiencies now because of the system. We haven’t got wasted footsteps. We haven’t got walking back to a base to get a piece of paper that then needs to be destroyed or could be dropped on the corridor. We’ve got a secure system, we’ve got evidence, we’ve got data and we’ve got patients being transferred at a timely manner.”

The new system encourages data-driven decisions and better planning making it easy to identify need for demand and resource. Steve Whitehead, Head of Facilities, said “The data that we collect has allowed us to plan our rotas more efficiently with the peaks and troughs that reports can highlight, the porters are in at the right time of day, and it makes it more efficient when moving patients and equipment around the hospital. I would say it’s improved patient care; The jobs that are logged are more accurate, porters turn up with the correct equipment, response times are quicker – so that speeds up patient flow.”

Watch the full video to see the full impact of MyPorter within Stepping Hill Hospital.

If you’re interested in talking to a member of the Stockport Stepping Hill Hospital about arranging a visit, please email myporter@globalviewsystems.co.uk

Latest version of ground-breaking MyPorter software is launched

GlobalView Systems has just released a new update to its unique MyPorter software management system, which gives additional insight and reporting capability for portering managers to increase efficiency and improve patient flow using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

The KPI Settings Report Tool enables managers to establish and interrogate specific KPIs such as porter uptime and time taken to complete both booked and urgent tasks, as well as producing insightful reports within seconds. Measuring success is a vital component of delivering effective services, and the Tool gives Trusts a flexible and meaningful way to monitor progress. Traditionally, portering KPIs are based on activity time, e.g. patient moves being undertaken within 20 minutes. The KPI Tool allows other factors such as priority, location and response times to be quantified, enabling more detailed reporting and the ability to target adjustments to areas which most require performance improvement.

The Tool enables hospitals to monitor the portering KPIs most relevant to them, and produce tailored reports according to precise areas such as:

• Time between request and porter completing the task for urgent cases such as sepsis or dementia

• Time taken to allocate and accept tasks

• Average time taken from accept to completion on all tasks

• Response times to urgent requests

• Workforce utilisation rate e.g. 80% porter uptime

The response to booked appointments can also be measured, helping to reduce missed appointments, ensure maximum utilisation of vital equipment and make best use of clinical staff time, as well as giving them the confidence to work to capacity.

The KPI Settings Report Tool provides a real time colour-coded dashboard of performance against targets, making it easy to identify and address any areas of concern as they occur. The Tool also enables detailed reports to be easily and quickly produced in a few simple steps, tailored according to the needs of the individual Trust. This may be at a task, departmental or Trust level, inline with Care Quality Commission reporting or in response to national targets such as Emergency Department four hour wait times.

The Tool gives Trusts the ability to establish Service Level Agreements (SLAs) which measure performance and demonstrate meaningful improvements and benefits over time, such as fewer pauses, fewer cancelled tasks, fewer tasks commenced after start time and improved patient flow. Various factors can be interrelated, e.g. a KPI can be created to measure the time taken from requesting a Covid patient being moved from ICU to completion.

The new Tool can be used in conjunction with MyPorter’s existing reporting function, which enables managers to view trends over time to help predict peaks in demand and allocate resource accordingly, helping to manage capacity versus demand over the longer term.

MyPorter was developed following extensive consultation with portering teams in over 100 NHS Trusts, and has been designed to meet the particular needs of the porters and managers. The KPI Reporting functionality was introduced in response to a request from Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (HUTH), and GlobalView worked closely with the facilities management team to create a solution that presented the data they needed in an insightful format. It has now been rolled out to all existing MyPorter customers throughout the UK.

The MyPorter task management system, gives real time visibility on porter location and activity, helping to streamline processes and improve patient flow with timely movements. The system is proactive, with notifications received prior to task start times. The system also records paused events, the reason, their duration and location, making it easy to identify and address delays and pinch points. A full audit trail can be accessed if needed, and any service queries easily resolved.

MyPorter has also improved the patient experience, ensuring they are in the right place, at the right time, and fewer appointments are missed or delayed. Tasks are distributed via text message to radio handsets or android devices, so this means no patient information can be overheard, enhancing patient dignity and reducing noise in the hospital environment.

Matt Wright, CEO at GlobalView Systems said: “We work in partnership with all of our customers to ensure their MyPorter systems are configured to their needs, and this new functionality has been developed in direct response to customer requirements to give them even more information to help them plan future service delivery. We have a continuous improvement approach, which means MyPorter will evolve over time, with enhancements and additional features to provide increased insight. The NHS has never been under greater pressure, and it’s vital that they have the tools available to help them ensure smooth patient flow and optimal use of valuable resources.”