London nurses set up new ‘virtual ward’ for patients with heart failure – Nursing Times

A team of cardiac nurse practitioners in London are set to launch a new service where patients with heart failure will be monitored remotely through a virtual ward.

Those behind the project told Nursing Times they believed it would revolutionise the management of these patients, by helping to alleviate symptoms and prevent hospitalisations.

The virtual ward programme is going to revolutionise the management of heart failure patients

Emil Elias

The service, which is due to be rolled out across London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust this month, will see outpatients with heart failure have their condition and symptoms monitored at home.

The patient will be required to use a smart phone app, provided by health technology innovator Luscii, to give information daily such as their blood pressure, heart rate, weight and oxygen saturation levels, which the nurses will assess and respond to accordingly.

Typically, outpatients with heart failure will be seen at a clinic within the trust two weeks after their hospital admission and again a few weeks later.

But the new concept of remote monitoring aims to ensure that patients have regular support and will not have to wait until their next clinical review before signs of deterioration can be spotted and addressed.

Emil Elias, a cardiac nurse practitioner and heart failure specialist nurse at the trust, is among 12 nurse practitioners who have set up the new service, which has been coined the virtual ward.

He told Nursing Times that, by using the remote monitoring service, the team was expecting to see more patients and provide support on a regular basis.

It is like a virtual ward. The physical location of the patient will be at home, but they will send in all the necessary information, explained Mr Elias, who moved to the trust from India in 2016.

Remote monitoring would allow clinicians like Mr Elias to identify early warning signs, such as fluid retention and weight gain, and intervene and adjust medications as appropriate.

"The physical location of the patient will be at home, but they will send in all the necessary information"

Emil Elias

It would also help to facilitate early discharge, because the team would have more frequent observations of the patient.

On average, nurses at Northwick Park one of the trusts hospital sites would review at least 100 patients with heart failure a week.

Currently, the number of times a patient can be seen in a clinic for checks is restricted by capacity limitations, explained Mr Elias.

But with remote monitoring, they could assure that these patients are looked after on a regular basis, he added.

Mr Elias, who is a nurse of 15 years, said he believed the virtual ward programme was going to revolutionise the management of heart failure patients by providing early indications of deterioration and allow for increased intervention from clinicians.

Overall, he said the new service would help to reduce hospitalisations, increase patient survival and enhance quality of life.

The team of cardiac nurse practitioners, which is supported by a cardiac consultant nurse and a consultant cardiologist, hope to make the service live by early next week.

Meanwhile, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust also announced today that it has too launched a pilot project to support patients with heart failure using the same Luscii app to monitor patients at home.

For its initial phase, the system has been rolled out to a distinct cohort of patients in London who have previously been required to carry out multiple in-person hospital visits for two to three months for treatment for their condition.

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London nurses set up new 'virtual ward' for patients with heart failure - Nursing Times