The project set out to integrate observation data with real-time, role-based communication and develop a new digital NEWS2 escalation workflow. This was to be co-designed by Alertive and clinical representatives from across the Trust, then piloted in AAU, chosen due to its large size (60 beds), high patient turnover, and frequent escalations making it an ideal environment for rigorous testing.
The collaborative team, comprising Alertive experts, AAU leaders, Critical Care Outreach team (CCOT), Sepsis teams, Hospital-at-Night teams, and patient safety leads, successfully developed a new process that was both technically functional and practically effective in a real clinical setting.
When a patient’s NEWS2 score crossed a predefined threshold, an alert was triggered in under 60 seconds and routed automatically to the bay nurse, nurse in charge and the CCOT. If no action was recorded within a set window, the alert escalated to the next tier. Every interaction would be timestamped and visible to those involved in the patient’s care, and the system was embedded directly into the Trust’s EPR, Cerner Millennium, to fit neatly into existing clinical workflows.
