A patient journey provides a unique picture of how our health service operates through the eyes and ears of our patients. The Bed Management Portal in use at Northern Health plays a vital role in tracking this journey.

“It was after a visit to Canterbury New Zealand, that we realised there was an opportunity to update our current Bed Management Portal to help better support a patients journey,” says Ed Savill, Operations Director, Cancer Services.

With a working group of clinicians from each discipline and from different sites providing support, Rowan Shield from the Decision Support team got to work, incorporating these learnings into the new portal, which launches at 7 am tomorrow.

Staff who were given a preview of the new portal at demonstrations across our sites have been positive in their feedback.

“I think it adds a lot of value to the existing portal,” says Natasha Knapic, Associate Nurse Unit Manager, Emergency Department.

“It has added functionality that I find really useful,” she added.

“It’s going to have a really positive impact on communications and patient care,” says Rachel Evans, Associate Director, Nutrition and Dietetics.

“The new portal connects with several key patient systems and provides better visibility on current status of patients and assists with discharge planning,” says Adam King, Director Decision Support, who has been closely involved in the rebuild of the portal.

“We recognise that there are a few changes in workflows for staff and that in the short term it will take a bit of getting used to, but medium term the aim is that the new portal will help identify areas of patient journey that may be delaying their next step,” says Ed.

He adds, “It should also help reduce phone calls and increase transparency around patient flow, so teams on the wards can have more time released to care for patients.”

The new Bed Management Portal will continue to evolve to ensure it supports our health service requirements, so your feedback is important. Suggestions on how the portal can be improved can be logged via nh-decision-support@nh.org.au.

Picture shows Rowan Shield from the Decision Support team tracking the patient journey.