To help reduce unnecessary delays, hospital admissions, and lengthy hospital stays, EMED Group integrated the ground-breaking ‘Patient Transport Liaison Officer’ (PTLO) role at the Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (GWH), dramatically improving patient flow, meeting KPIs, and overall service success.

The Demand

The well-established NHS Reducing Length of Stay (RLoS) programme aims to improve patients’ care experiences by ensuring they are discharged without unnecessary delay.

“Prolonged stays in hospital are bad for patients, especially for those who are frail or elderly. Spending a long time in hospital can lead to an increased risk of falling, sleep deprivation, catching infections and sometimes mental and physical deconditioning. Despite this, nearly 350,000 patients spend more than three weeks in acute hospitals each year.”

EMED Group’s PTLO

Launched in September 2022, the Swindon Integrated Care Alliance Coordination Centre, based at the Great Western Hospital, aims to physically integrate colleagues from across the whole health and care system, removing organisational boundaries so that patient care can be better coordinated from the moment they talk to a GP, dial 111 or 999, or walk through the doors of the hospital.

EMED Group has successfully provided Non-Emergency Patient Transport Services for The Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (GWH) since June 2019 (previously as E-zec). A key aspect of this success has been the provision of its on-site PTLO, which has been highly effective in managing patient flow across outpatient, renal, and discharge services while providing a vital coordinating link between the hospital and the Operations team.

EMED Patient Care’s PTLOs are specifically recruited based on their management and leadership backgrounds to ensure they are well-suited to its organisational demands. They are also granted a high degree of autonomy to make decisions with the patient’s best interests at the forefront.

The Control team trusts the PTLO to make decisions and alterations on the day, effectively utilising their skillset to be confident in making change control decisions on the go. GWH found that EMED’s PTLO’s tenacity and ingenuity in prioritising problem-solving in complex, conflicting situations while ensuring effective patient care and flow have greatly reduced abort levels.

Service Success

At the other end of the patient journey is the HomeFirst initiative, which aims to get patients quickly back on their feet by implementing appropriate support measures to ensure longer-term care needs are assessed away from a hospital setting. Since the summer of 2022, this initiative has helped more than 500 patients who no longer require care on a ward to safely continue their recovery at home.

The cost of an overnight stay in a ward is an estimated £395 per night when considering overheads and staff time spent on additional NHS care. EMED’s effective patient flow management has allowed GWH to save a potentially accumulating figure of £197,500 when only considering the addition of a single night caused by a delayed discharge.

The role has been a huge success, working closely with a wide range of HCPs to improve discharges. EMED’s PTLO has also proactively engaged with social care colleagues at Swindon Borough Council and Wiltshire County Council. This has resulted in the PTLO being asked to join the Coordination Centre team, which has won a regional award and been nominated for the National NHS Parliamentary Awards in 2023.

“Over 250 people have been helped during this project and A&E figures have stabilised. For the previous three months, there were 10 reports of people dying due to long lies. There have been none since the provider have taken over, which is very positive. People were dying from waiting to be lifted, and they are not now.”

Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin ICS Falls Improvement Group