In-Patient Therapy Team Leader Anthony Dawson and Adam Buckley from THIS recently demonstrated a new Therapy e-caseload system which will revolutionise the way the team work in future.

The new electronic whiteboard system is already working at HRI and CRH will join them this month.

Anthony told CHFT "In the past within therapies we used to have case loads written in books (yes books!). So apart from whoever had the book at the time, nobody else could see the caseloads.

"We then moved to having a physical whiteboard put up in our departments, which to some extent was more successful. But it was difficult to gather Key Performance Indicator (KPI) information (someone used to have to physically stand and count up cases at the end of each week!).

"And we only had to accidentally brush against the board to lose information, plus there were clearly Information Governance issues.  

"And as effective team working is crucial to delivering great care, there was no visibilty across other teams at CHFT.

"We thought there must be a better way. We have Nerve Centre and EPR is coming on line, so we knew there should be a way to gather our data in a better way for everyone's advantage.

Clinical lead OT, Nicky Hill said "It's just so much easier to use and manage our caseloads as a team. One of the best things is we can access it remotely wherever we are - therapies on the go so to speak - which means each patient can be seen by the right person, at the right time, in the right place".

Anthony added "Having this new system (the picture of the screen is below) means we can support each other and identify priorities at a glance. If the bed team need to see if a patient has been referred to a therapist they can - and it's much quicker as it's all in one place".

"EPR is going to be fantastic though the therapies team need more information about entire caseloads at a glance and this system does that. And the great thing is that it will really support the EPR system further."

Director of Operations Asif Ameen (pictured at the demo) said "I'm massively impressed with whole e-caseload system and I think it's got the potential to be used elsewhere in the trust and maybe wider. It's also a great visual for colleagues with non-medical backgrounds, particularly around the KPIs."

"But without the close collaboration of Anthony and Adam it really wouldn't have got this far. It's great to see what we can achieve when we have a great idea and know where to go for expertise".