Digital triage provider, eConsult Health has today announced that it has agreed a new partnership with Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation to integrate its eTriage technology for patient registration and prioritisation in its Emergency Department.

The implementation sets out to strengthen the hospital’s ability to meet its government-set target of initially assessing walk-in patients within 15 minutes.

eTriage, is an electronic registration check-in service which uses algorithm-based questions about patient symptoms, to quickly identify, within minutes of arrival, the sickest patients and categorise walk-ins into five different priority categories (P1 – P5). The technology, which facilitates the prioritisation and triage of patients arriving at Kingston’s Emergency Department, will help reduce initial assessment waiting times for the Trust,  enhancing patient safety.

As part of the agreement, eTriage will support existing workflows and be fully integrated through existing Cerner Millennium capabilities. The check-in feature will eliminate the pre-registration queues typically associated with arriving at the Emergency Department. By reducing registration times, and automating triage, Kingston Hospital will be able to increase the proportion of patients seen for initial assessment within a 15-minute wait period, and help shorten the journey to treatment for the sickest patients, whilst assisting in the redirection of lower acuity patients.

The partnership is also aimed to free up clinical time, which will add both logistical and efficiency benefits to the Trust.

Dr Mark Harmon, Strategy Director at eConsult comments: “As we head into a tough winter, as if the NHS wasn’t under enough pressure, the strain is about to increase. At eConsult, our big focus is on how we put patient safety at the heart of delivery. And we’re excited about this partnership with Kingston Hospital because it sets out to  protect the quality of patient care. Working closely with Kingston Hospital, we aim to support the clinical and administrative staff that keep the wheels turning each day whilst tackling increased demand. We hope this contract will become another example for how Trusts can keep transforming digitally to improve patient care across the NHS.”

eTriage, an electronic registration service that uses algorithm-based questions about symptoms and medical history, quickly identifies the sickest patients and categorises walk-ins. That, coupled with eConsult’s Smart Inbox feature, will increase communication between patients and clinical staff and help accurate and efficient triaging.

Speeding up time-to-assessment has a range of benefits for patients of Kingston Hospital Trust, which includes:

• Improving patient safety: eTriage ensures that patients requiring urgent medical attention are immediately identified and flagged to nurses within the hospital’s EPR system.
• Redirecting to UTC earlier: Lower acuity patients will be redirected to Urgent Treatment Centres more quickly and treated sooner.
• Reducing administrative pain points: With faster triaging, there will be less time spent queuing at reception and registering patients. Patients will have to spend less time waiting for triage.
• Increasing patients assessed: A greater proportion of patients will be assessed within the 15-minute target, and the initial assessment (triage) will take less time. That way, patients will wait less for pain relief and their journey to diagnosis can be shorter.
• Freeing up clinical and administrative resources: through time saved during automated check in and triage