Thanks to funding provided by Kingston Hospital Charity and with the assistance of our Estates, IT, and the Care Records Service (CRS) teams, all adult inpatient wards now have an electronic smart whiteboard in place to replace the old whiteboards.

Trials have been successfully completed on Hardy, Derwent and Blyth wards in preparation for going live across all wards in the coming months. The clinical teams have been very engaged with this innovation and led the change, which will have a positive impact on the hospital’s ability to better plan and track the care of patients.

The electronic whiteboard displays live information from the electronic patient record, so provides real-time information about patients which is used in the daily multidisciplinary team meeting. This has resulted in less duplication of information, more efficient meetings, and better alignment between the hospital teams. Consequently ward-based delays have been reduced and the hospital is able to monitor and plan discharge better. Using a touchscreen electronic whiteboard in this way also helps ensure patient confidentiality, as it can be locked when not in use.

Colleagues are working with the electronic patient record team to continually improve the whiteboard, as it is rolled out across more of the wards. The aim is to ensure that patients don’t wait as long for investigations and tests and that they get the therapeutic input they need sooner, while also reducing delays to discharge.