The new NHS National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC), due to open later this year near Loughborough, Leicestershire, is to deploy ‘intelligent’ bedside terminals to help patients maintain their independence while recovering from life-changing conditions, such as brain injuries, and illnesses.
Airwave Healthcare has been selected to equip bedrooms at the new centre with ‘intelligent bedside terminals’ – iPads that, as Airwave puts it, ‘will provide much more than the entertainment services that patients would typically enjoy at home’. The NRC will be run and staffed by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, and is due to open later this year.
The terminals will be integrated into the NRC’s systems, allowing patients to control their own environment – operating room blinds, lighting and heating – which will be important to help patients to maintain their independence as they recover from severe illnesses or injuries – including traumatic brain injuries.
Educational content relevant to each individual’s rehabilitation will be made available through the same device, as will personalised diaries to keep patients informed about their schedule and care activity. Airwave Healthcare explained that electronic patient record integration will mean that patients are kept informed ‘as active participants in their rehabilitation’ – with live access to information on their estimated discharge date, medications, diet, care teams, ‘and other important insights relevant to the individual’.
Patients will also be able to video call friends and loved ones from accessible devices, and order meals directly from the same device – all through an enhanced version of a service called MyCareTV, designed to help stimulate patients during their care.
Miriam Duffy, NRC director, said: “Our innovative approach to rehabilitation at the NRC will be a game-changer both for patients and rehabilitation as a whole. This technology is one of a wide range of measures designed to deliver that step change for patients, helping them to engage in their ongoing rehabilitation 24 hours a day.
“Intelligent bedside terminals will help promote independence for our patients, many of whom have life-changing injuries. For patients with limited mobility, it will mean they can use the technology in their room to control their environment, without having to ask a staff member, while for patients who may have impacted memory from brain injuries, it is another means by which we can keep them informed about what is happening in their care.”
Airwave Healthcare was chosen following a stringent procurement process, based on factors including cost and ‘extensive experience supporting providers in the NHS’.
