Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust is the latest large healthcare provider to go live with communication app, CardMedic.
The trust-wide rollout to 7,500 staff follows a successful year-long pilot in the maternity department at Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in Woolwich.
Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust delivers acute and community services to over one million people from numerous cultural and ethnic backgrounds and who speak over 100 languages.
CardMedic will help the trust deliver more accessible and equitable care through on-demand healthcare translation and interpreting support.
The maternity team at QEH wanted to carry on using the system following the pilot, which was funded through the London Maternity Clinical Network.
The trust could see how CardMedic would help the wider nursing and community workforce communicate with patients.
The trust’s Chief Nursing Information Officer, Amanda Fitzsimons, said: “Once maternity staff started using CardMedic and saw what it could do, there was a ripple effect and they started recommending it to their colleagues.
“Our nursing and midwifery directors saw its potential and are now driving its adoption across the trust.”
CardMedic works alongside the trust’s existing interpreting service to help the trust provide high-quality services to its non-English speaking patients, especially when face-to-face interpreting support is unavailable.
Fitzsimmons said: “We use interpreting services such as telephone and in-person translators on ward rounds and for scheduled appointments.
“The gap in care comes when there are quick conversations you have with a patient, such as when you are doing observations or taking blood and you want to explain what you want the patient to do, and why. CardMedic helps us bridge that gap.”
The app has been live at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust since January and is already gathering positive feedback.
Staff have described it as a good communication tool and appreciate the wide range of scripts available. The live translate functionality with microphone option is also proving useful.
As well as providing a responsive interpreting and translation service, CardMedic can help avoid delays and provide a better patient experience.
The trust hopes to replicate the success of CardMedic in maternity by promoting its use across the whole organisation.
CardMedic Co-Founder and CEO Dr Rachael Grimaldi said: “Maternity teams recognise the importance of consistently good communication around the clock, so it is encouraging to hear how positive feedback from midwives has led to the wider adoption of CardMedic at the trust. CardMedic is available 24/7 and helps ensure that communication barriers do not get in the way of great care.
“Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust joins several other healthcare providers across London using CardMedic to provide instant communication support to a diverse and dynamic population.
“We’re proud to be helping to improve health equity and care productivity in the capital and elsewhere.”
