NHS Cheshire & Merseyside have won the ‘Safety Improvement through Technology’ category at the 2023 HSJ Patient Safety for their remote monitoring-enabled heart failure virtual ward. The North West’s first heart failure virtual ward was launched in May 2022, following a successful joint bid from Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust (MCFT) and Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LUHFT) to secure funding from the NHS Digital Health Partnership Award.

The virtual ward –  in partnership with digital health company Docobo and part of Mersey Care’s Telehealth Service – ensures heart failure patients can receive the same care by remaining at home as they would expect when in hospital.   The telehealth service helps with the early identification of any deterioration of symptoms and complications via data readings that are received by Mersey Care’s clinical hub.

Patients accepted onto the service have a daily review in the virtual ward round by a consultant and are monitored for 14 days by Telehealth clinicians. The daily observations include temperature, blood pressure, oxygen levels, step count and ECG, plus a daily symptoms questionnaire.  The information is recorded at home, three times a day and monitored by nurses for clinical assessment.

Dr Rajiv Sankaranarayanan, Consultant Cardiologist and Heart Failure Lead at LUHFT accepted the prestigious award with the team, at the HSJ event on 18^th September.

Rob Halhead,  Docobo says: ‘Huge congratulations to the team – it’s wonderful to be part of this virtual ward programme and to see the benefit it brings to patients.’