Partners: Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Hillingdon Council, Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Alignment with three shifts: Analogue to digital
Around 14% of hospital beds in NWL are occupied by patients who are medically fit to be discharged. As part of a system-wide approach to optimising discharge coordination, we’ve supported the implementation of technology solution, OPTICA – the Optimised Patient Tracking and Intelligent Choices Application.
OPTICA is a secure, cloud-based application designed to support hospitals in tracking admitted patients and tasks related to their discharge in near real-time. It aims to streamline discharge processes by fostering collaboration between teams across multiple care settings, ensuring patients are connected with the most appropriate care providers.
ICHP has supported the expansion of OPTICA from its established use in hospital discharge hubs to include Local Authorities (LAs) in NWL – introducing OPTICA in Hillingdon, and Kensington and Chelsea LAs, for use alongside their local hospital discharge hubs. We provided dedicated implementation and training support, including one-to-one and team training sessions.
The implementation of OPTICA has meant that, for the first time in NWL, NHS and Adult Social Care colleagues working across Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Hillingdon Council, Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, can access and update a single source of real-time information about each patient’s discharge arrangements.
Early reports from both Trust and Adult Social Care teams have highlighted marked reductions in the volume of email (circa 40%) and telephone communications. Meetings have been streamlined, and miscommunication substantially reduced. Users have told us that OPTICA has enhanced communication within teams, leading to better coordination and information sharing between Trusts and LAs. Users also noted that expanding OPTICA to other hospitals and LA teams would promote a more consistent approach and strengthen collaboration. The resident population now covered by OPTICA connected Trust and LA services totals 450,000 (across Hillingdon and Kensington and Chelsea).
We are now undertaking a full and robust evaluation of the implementation of OPTICA across these four sites, with a view to expanding its adoption to all eight LAs in NWL.
“I’d be all out at sea without it… it’s the one accurate source of information for me.” NWL OPTICA user
“Before we were just using Cerner. I was reluctant to move to OPTICA, but now I love it.” NWL OPTICA user
