The Virtual Services Team (VST), part of the Trust’s innovative Virtual Royal Infirmary (VRI) programme, is revolutionising the way hospital care is delivered. Since its launch on June 26, 2023, this cutting-edge Virtual Ward (Hospital at Home) service has brought hospital-level care directly to patients’ homes, reducing unnecessary hospital admissions and supporting early discharge. The result? Enhanced comfort, convenience, and clinical safety — all in line with patients’ preferred choice of care.
An evaluation of the service, spanning its first 14 months of operation, reveals its impressive impact across seven key specialties: Acute Medicine, Cardiology, Gastroenterology, General Surgery, Renal, Respiratory, and Vascular care. The findings showcase the service’s transformative potential to improve outcomes and optimise resources.
Delivering Results: Key Achievements
- Adoption and Reach:
- Seven specialties are actively using the Virtual Services Team.
- Service Utilisation:
- Over 725 patients have been discharged from the Virtual Ward with an average virtual ward stay of 9.8 days; 7,019 days in total.
- Admissions include a balanced mix of step-up (hospital admission avoidance) and step-down (post-discharge) patients.
- Admission rates are growing steadily, reaching 73 per month in FY24-25.
- Patient Demographics:
- Virtual Ward patients tend to be older, with 67.4% aged over 55 compared to 53.2% of inpatients.
- Sex and ethnicity distributions are largely consistent with our inpatient demographics.
- Deprivation index analysis indicates the service is reaching the most disadvantaged groups.
- Patient and Clinician Feedback:
- Patients: 96.6% reported a good or very good experience.
- Clinicians: Positive feedback focusing on positive patient outcomes, improved safety and resource efficiency.
- Impact on Inpatient Beds:
- Avoided inpatient bed-days: 1,671 in FY23-24 and 1,577 in FY24-25.
- Equivalent bed availability: 6.7 and 11.5 beds per day in FY23-24 and FY24-25, respectively.
- Cost-Effectiveness:
- Delivered a positive return on investment, achieving £4.90 for every £1 invested in FY24-25 based on opportunity saving.
Supporting Clinicians to Bring Care Closer to Home
Clinicians across specialties have praised the service’s patient-centric approach:
“Patients have a strong preference to be treated in their own home wherever possible. Until now, we’ve had no option but to keep patients in hospital for extended periods of time. Virtual wards allow us to deliver the same interventions and monitoring for patients, with regular review to ensure that any deterioration is captured early and allows treatment to be changed or escalated to hospital admission.”
– Jiv Gosai, Cardiology Consultant
“The Virtual Service Team has been one of the most important supporting services I have used in my life as a medical consultant. It not only provides reassurance to patients and the discharge team, but it is also a seed for massive future opportunities and much larger projects.”
– Tameem Tawfiq, Acute Medicine Consultant
“The Virtual Services Team is a very welcome addition to our array of virtual activities and delivers a consistently high standard of care for patients who are well enough to complete their treatment at home rather than in hospital.”
– John Stoves, Renal Consultant
“The respiratory specialist virtual ward MDT has provided us with the ability to support an earlier discharge for patients’ by delivering care directly into their homes during the acute illness and arranging a prompt outpatient follow up with the specialist team. The virtual service is an integral step in addressing this high readmission rate.”
– Tanveer Khalid, Respiratory Consultant
Looking Ahead: Ambitious Plans for Growth
Building on its success, the Virtual Services Team has ambitious plans, including:
- Further integration across in-scope specialties
- Developing new referral streams
- Expanding to additional specialties
James Halstead, Upper GI Consultant and Virtual Ward Clinical Lead, said: “The Virtual Ward, across the many and expanding number of specialties that it serves, has already proven to be a meaningful productive addition to the pathways that they offer.
It has demonstrated that in providing safe at home care for patients, who would otherwise occupy a hospital bed, that it can provide safe comprehensive care enabling a patient to benefit from all of the advantages of being in their usual home environment.
Clearly, we are only part-way along this journey and there is still much work to do. All and any of those interested can contact any of the members of the Virtual Services Team for further information as we would only be too pleased to talk to you in the hope of fostering further engagement and driving wider adoption of this exciting opportunity.”
The full Service Evaluation report can be accessed on this link.