Digital Vision – Integrating Care

A virtual ward round is the participation of relatives during the ward visit via video. In this way, the relatives can participate and support the hospitalised person without having to take time off from work and spend time on transport and parking. It also makes it possible for relatives who are physically far away from the hospital to participate and it is possible to invite more people who can join regardless of where they are.

VDC is an abbreviation for Virtual Discharge Conferences, where a hospitalised patient's home municipality participates in a conference together with the hospital, the patient themselves and any relatives. The purpose is to coordinate and match expectations of the discharge situation and how the patient/citizen gets home safely.

Digital Vision contributed with the implementation of video access in the Department of Cardiology, where it was particularly used a lot in the bed section B3. In addition, Digital Vision contributed by supporting the use of VDC by ensuring easily accessible technical support.

Both parts took place with the help of an SMS-video solution and the introduction of this generally helped to start a focus on video in the department, including in the outpatient clinics.

An assessment of virtual ward rounds at B3 showed that they have become an integral part of everyday life, and that also nurses employed after the implementation period have been introduced and are familiar with the solution. This project is now completed and transitioned to daily operations.

Cross-sectoral sparring is regular virtual sparring meetings between hospital and municipality, including concrete cases and teaching. The task in Digital Vision was to contribute to assessment and implementation.

After the assessment, it was decided to implement for operation using Sharepoint as a platform for information exchange in relation to patient cases, agendas, etc. The final workflows, which were supposed to ensure that the project became operationally reliable independent of individuals, were falling into place, but it proved very difficult to create good, low-practical workflows that at the same time met current legal requirements. There is therefore still a certain element of double work.

This sub-project involved a focus on getting more referrals to the municipalities' offer on smoking cessation and clarifying talks. In this connection, a software robot was developed to make the procedure much easier than before, and Digital Vision contributed to the project particularly with the implementation plan and implementation. Due to the lack of possibility to draw data on the number of referrals, it is not clear how much effect the changed workflow and greater focus had.

This sub-project involved changing the outpatient visits, where the patients were previously fitted by a nurse with a Pocket ECG, to the patients fitting the equipment themselves.

Digital Vision ensured a practical delivery method for the equipment: A parcel locker for medical equipment. The parcel locker is in the hall approx. 22 hours a day and at a fixed time, a robot is moved between the lobby and the department in order to be filled up. The parcel locker itself saves nurses time for delivery and patients can use a short-term parking space rather than having to spend a long time parking and going all the way up to the department. In addition, the patients will have the opportunity to come almost around the clock, where today they preferably have to come between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. By having the parcel locker moved by a robot, time will not be spent moving things manually between the department and the hall.

In addition to the Department of Cardiology, the Hans Christian Andersen Hospital for Children and Adolescents is also part of the solution. Here, it is to a greater extent ad hoc equipment that a practical solution is needed for. Until now, parents who have had to pick up equipment after 3 p.m. have had to pick it up at the Children's Reception and have had to factor in time to find parking and waiting time.

The start-up with the mobile parcel locker has spawned new ideas for use and several other departments have also expressed interest in the solution. The same also applies to several external parties from both at home and abroad who have been curious about the solution. The next step is to expand the project to include the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics.

The Patient Platform: a common work tool between patient and staff is a collaboration between the Department of Cardiology and the Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology.

Read more about the project here.

Telemedicine for heart failure is a solution where patients receive a package of equipment for home monitoring, including a scale and a blood pressure device as well as a tablet, on which the measured results can be reported. The staff at the hospital can see the data that the patient reports from home and can contact the patient if deviations are seen that need to be acted upon. It is therefore possible to identify and act on the measured data earlier in the development than if the patient only had this data measured during a visit to the hospital. Thus, this solution can also support patients being actively involved in their own treatment process and mastering their own health, and must at the same time reduce the number of outpatient check-ups and in the long run help to reduce the number of hospitalisations.

The solution was decided nationally and implemented in all regions. In the Region of Southern Denmark, the pilot testing took place in the Department of Cardiology and the Department of Internal Medicine and Acute Medicine, and the implementation management was therefore located in Digital Vision. In the spring of 2025, the effort will be extended to other hospitals and municipalities in the Region of Southern Denmark.

From 1 November, the hospital departments in the Region of Southern Denmark had 72 hours of treatment responsibility after admissions of more than 24 hours, which meant that municipal employees could contact the discharging department directly in case of questions or deterioration. The expectation was, based on experience from the Capital Region of Denmark, that most inquiries could be handled by phone or video and the hope was to avoid unnecessary readmissions.

A sub-project was therefore created with Nyborg Municipality, where it was to be investigated whether telemedicine could further support and qualify the dialogue about the patient. Equipment was used that could send data such as temperature, images/video sequences, stethoscopy, etc., either in real time (while both parties were on video with each other) or staggered, so that data recordings were made that a doctor could see by appointment a bit later.

In the pilot test, the intention was to investigate whether the equipment lived up to expectations and whether it contributed meaningfully to the collaboration.

The project was a collaboration between the FAM and MS bed sections as well as Nyborg Municipality's emergency team and the company Medidyne, which sells Tytocare – the device that was used. Based on experience and data, the expectation was that around 10 patients could be included for a test of how the technique worked practically in the setup. However, the reality turned out to be different, and it was therefore only possible to get two patients on board. However, both patients, staff in Nyborg, doctors from the department and the company behind it were fundamentally positive – the target group was just too narrow.

The increasing digitisation of e.g. the healthcare sector creates an increasing digital inequality among citizens/patients, where those without sufficient digital skills generally cannot benefit from the telemedicine offers available. Efforts towards these patients are today characterised by chance, individuals and extra efforts.

This sub-project has therefore the aim to design a concept for how to, in a standardised way in a collaboration between hospital and municipality, support citizens/patients without sufficient digital skills of their own. This should mean that the patients can then participate in virtual consultations and provide any measurements, thus strengthening the self-monitoring of their own health.

The project takes place in collaboration with Faaborg-Midtfyn Municipality and has received support from the Integrated Health and Care (iHAC) foundation as well as the Danish Ministry of Health.

The project is now in "part 2", which involves a pilot test, adjustment, implementation and experience gathering of the prepared concept. This means that the nurses in the Faaborg-Midtfyn Municipality have received training in the region's system for video consultations and in heart failure. The collection of experience will begin in June and is expected to be completed in August.

A virtual ward round is the participation of relatives during the ward visit via video. In this way, the relatives can participate and support the hospitalised person without having to take time off from work and spend time on transport and parking. It also makes it possible for relatives who are physically far away from the hospital to participate and it is possible to invite more people who can join regardless of where they are.

VDC is an abbreviation for Virtual Discharge Conferences, where a hospitalised patient's home municipality participates in a conference together with the hospital, the patient themselves and any relatives. The purpose is to coordinate and match expectations of the discharge situation and how the patient/citizen gets home safely.

Digital Vision contributed with the transfer of experience from the implementation at the Department of Cardiology.

In Health Cluster Funen, it has been agreed to put a special focus on making it possible for nursing home residents to have virtual sessions in the outpatient clinics. Nursing home residents can benefit greatly from staying in familiar surroundings and avoiding spending effort on transport and waiting time. In addition, it can be helpful for both the resident, the hospital and the nursing home that permanent healthcare staff from the nursing home can participate, tell about the patient's condition and ensure coordination of the plan.

Under the auspices of Digital Vision, meetings have been held with nurses, nursing home managers and the head of the elderly in the respective Ærø and Svendborg Municipality as well as with the nursing home manager of Friplejehjemmet Svendborg. The meetings have been about raising awareness of this possibility and supporting the care homes in this with, for example, material and guides.

These meetings have increased awareness and adherence to virtual courses among nursing home residents. The experiences have been positive, and the work continues in operation. ​