Helping Hospital Discharges
Published: Monday, 8 April 2024
Nottingham on Call is supporting Nottingham City Council’s Adult Social Care to enable safe and timely discharges home from hospital and assess needs for ongoing care support. This includes the use of innovative technology to assess how the patient is managing when they have been discharged home and helps to keep them safe.
As well as the digital care alarm and sensors based on a patient’s needs, Nottingham on Call is installing a system called Intelligent Lilli https://www.intelligentlilli.com/. The system uses a range of sensors to assess how the patient is looking after themselves, as well as providing data on how the patient is eating and drinking, sleeping, moving about in their home, and the temperature inside the home. In addition, if any abnormal movement or behaviour is detected overnight, an alert is raised that enables a care agency to make a home welfare visit.
To assess whether it is appropriate to support the patient in their home with this system, the social worker will consider whether it is suitable for them, explain and discuss the system with the patient and their family, and obtain their consent. The system of sensors is installed by Nottingham on Call and stays in place for approximately six weeks. The data produced about their activity and behaviour not only keeps the patient safe when potentially at risk following their discharge home from hospital, but also provides data on how they have settled at home and are managing. This helps provide a picture of their needs for any continuing care support.
The plan is to support the safe discharge home of 200 patients during 2024/25. The service started in February 2024, and twelve patients have already been discharged home with the system. An evaluation is being undertaken to assess the impact of supporting patients discharged home from hospital, and their ongoing care support. If it is successful, it is hoped it will lead to more patients being discharged to their homes where they want to be, as opposed to formal care settings like residential care.
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