Read how Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust pivoted to remote care with the help of Jamf and Apple.
Accelerating Virtual Care at Oxford Health
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
Oxford, UK
In the wake of a global pandemic, the world is drastically changing. And this is no more prevalent than in hospitals, where doctors, nurses and patients are searching for new, better and safer ways to deliver and receive care. A prime example of this is Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, which has a mix of Community and Mental Health services including Community Hospitals, Out of Hours Service, MIU, District Nurses and Dental Services. With the focus on excellent patient care, the trust mobilised their staff by providing iPads to clinicians.
Relying on technology to deliver modern, safe care
In 2019, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust realised that they needed to realign their mobility strategy with Apple and Jamf.
“Apple is a pivotal technology that underpins our Trust’s Mental Health strategy,” said Mark Walker, Head of the Trust’s IT team. “In fact, after reviewing the market, we believe that Apple technology and application stacks offer a real opportunity to rapidly and safely drive forward the NHS’s long-term plan for digitisation of the Health Service.”
The recent COVID-19 events have accelerated Oxford Health’s digitisation strategy and their plans to transform care.
“As an IT department, it seems that we have now transformed the Trust in the space of a couple of weeks, now, more than ever, we have seen an increase in demand for iOS devices,” added Mark.
Where Windows devices were once the default, “people are looking for alternative ways of working, which in turn, led up to Apple.” Oxford Health established that mobile devices were predominantly required for care at home to enable patients to receive care in familiar surroundings. Clinicians were using iPads for 1:1 home visits, removing the traditional physical barrier of a laptop whilst still being able to access patient records and clinical materials.
Evolving care to meet patient needs
With the NHS Foundation putting new strategies in place to maintain healthcare at home, patients are being seen and treated in different ways. In the same way, the amount of families visiting loved ones has come to a halt due to protecting the health of others.
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust realized they needed to find a solution that could overcome distance but still keep providers, patients and loved ones connected.
Having already used Jamf for day-to-day management of their 4,000 iPad estate, once COVID-19 hit, the healthcare team at Jamf reached out to Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust to offer the of solution of Virtual Visits. Virtual Visits empowers healthcare organisations to configure and instantly deploy third-party conferencing platforms to iOS devices without the need for user name and password. Hospitals can easily connect paitents with their loved ones — without IT ever having to touch the device.
“We had the Virtual Visits solution presented to us and I knew that it was the solution for us” said Holly Panting, IT Project Manager. “We can facilitate an easy way for patients to see their families without the technology being over complicated in order to improve the patient experience,” said Holly. “With the flexibility in Jamf Pro, it allows us to deploy and manage these devices easily. We can now spin these solutions up quickly and get them deployed safely.”
Keeping data private and devices compliant
Oxford Health runs a shared-device model and typically would have two or three iPads per ward. “In the vein of empowering our patients, the Trust board agreed to fund an iPad per bed in the community wards.” Holly continued to say that, “Jamf Pro allows us to hide the unnecessary apps, which previously would of taken a long time to achieve. In healthcare it is imperative that we comply with GDPR and Virtual Visits does this.”
To protect a patient’s private information and to remain compliant, once a paitient has completed the video call with their loved ones, their credentials are automatically wiped, with no personal identifiable data stored.
By leveraging Jamf Pro, when patients are discharged, the patient or staff use Jamf Reset to wipe the device, this “digital sterilisation” of the device means that it is ready for the next patient and Jamf Setup provisions devices for the exact needs of the current user whilst maintiaing the privacy. This new workflow limits the amount of personal protective equipment (PPE) care teams use during each patient encounter, but still enables them to provide quality care whilst staying secure.
“The solution that Jamf has given us has fixed an immediate problem that we, as a Trust were facing, however the solution will now continue to grow as we are able to provide a secure patient bedside solution that aligns with the Trust’s strategy of providing dignity to our patients,” said Holly.
The future of care, delivered today
With the Trust looking to further develop their mobilisation strategy, they plan on increasing their Apple estate and therefore it is vital that Jamf not only continues to serve as a foundation for the Trust’s IT team but is integral to support their development to bring its vision of providing excellent patient care to fruition.
See how your organization can simpify inpatient telehealth and other Apple healthcare initiatves with Jamf. Learn more about Virtual Visits here.
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