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HomeLink Healthcare can improve patient flow in NHS hospitals.
We are a clinically-led organisation which has been providing safe, high-quality Hospital at Home services to NHS patients since 2016. These include virtual wards, early supported discharge, admission avoidance and reablement. All improve patient flow by preventing some people being admitted to hospital and enabling others to come home more quickly. Our services give faster patient recovery and improved patient outcomes, with a significant reduction in readmittance.
HomeLink Healthcare increases NHS hospital and community trust capacity at a lower cost than the NHS. We are prequalified on the NHS SBS Medical Care at Home procurement framework. This provides a speedier contracting process within an approved framework.
What is patient flow in the NHS?
The NHS describes patient flow as “… the movement of patients, information or equipment between departments, staff groups or organisations as part of their care pathway. Ideally they should move from one step in their care to the next without delay. This is known as continuous flow.”
Why is improving patient flow important?
If patient flow is interrupted at any point the delay can back up and cause disruption throughout the system. For example, if there is a delay in discharging a patient from hospital because of a lack of appropriate care at home, that creates a delay in admitting another patient to hospital. This is costly for the NHS and detrimental to patient outcomes.
What are the obstacles to patient flow?
We reduced the waiting list by 85% on one service in London.
Problems with patient flow can be caused by many factors including:
- patients not routinely discharged at weekends
- patients not routinely discharged from midday
- lack of community services availability
- delays in the commencement of packages of care
- community services are not always available in care homes
- delays in access to negative pressure therapy
- availability of same day IV Therapy at Home services
How do you increase patient flow?
The features HomeLink Healthcare’s Hospital at Home services that improve flow include:
- pre-discharge assessment
- facilitating same day transfer/discharge
- home based care up to QDS (visits up to four times a day), seven days a week
- a 24/7 on call service, every day of the year
- experienced and qualified clinical teams
- expert clinical leadership
- real time activity data/analytics
- key performance indicators (KPIs) and business intelligence reporting
Work with us
Find out more about the process of commissioning HomeLink Healthcare to set up a Hospital at Home service.
Get in touch
To speak to a member of our team about our Hospital at Home services, call us on (020) 3137 5370 or contact us. You can tell us about your situation, and we can tell you more about our experience and how we might be able to help you.
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Resources:
Case study
Supporting the flow of patient care from hospital to home
NNUH at Home is a co-created service, set up in 2019 to release in-patient bed capacity and improve patient flow.
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Case study
NHS restoration and recovery – addressing the capacity challenge across an ICS
As our health and care systems address the complex challenge of a backlog of elective cases, the approach of Winter and further COVID-19 surges, what can be done to balance these competing demands on systems with limited capacity?
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Case study
How HomeLink Healthcare can help address the mounting problem of elective backlogs in hospitals
How HomeLink Healthcare reduces waiting times and increases capacity to assist patient flow and address the elective backlog.
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Case study
Changing attitudes towards hospital and healthcare means more patients are being treated at home
There are many lessons to be learnt from the pandemic. In healthcare, every answer points to the need to care for more people at home. Find out how we've collaborated with NHS partners to combat these challenges.
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Case study
Capacity challenges overcome with rapid response at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals during Covid
This case study describes how capacity challenges were overcome, whilst accessibility and patient flow were improved, with rapid responsiveness and time-critical precision.
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Case study
Virtual ward and VAC pump therapies: a patient’s experience
A requirement was identified for more complex wound care within the community so we developed a new service providing VAC pump therapy to patients in their homes as part of a virtual ward.
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Case study
Celebrating saving the NHS 10,000 bed days
In June 2021 we celebrated saving 10,000 bed days at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (NNUHT). Almost 600 patients benefitted from our service, spending an average of 18 days being treated at home instead of in the hospital.
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Case study
Discharge to assess with HomeLink Healthcare. Retaining the positive improvements from the pandemic
HomeLink’s D2A Hospital at Home service at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn improves patient flow.
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Case study
Enhancing at-home intravenous antibiotic therapy with remote patient monitoring
HomeLink Healthcare and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in Partnership.
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