University Hospitals Birmingham Charity (UHB Charity) supports the four largest hospitals in Birmingham, England - the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Heartlands Hospital, Good Hope Hospital and Solihull Hospital.
University Hospitals Birmingham Charity
Birmingham, England, United Kingdom
The UHB Charity improves the hospital experience of over two million patients each year by providing extras that are "over and above" what can be provided by the National Health Service (NHS), the publicly funded healthcare system in England.
In 2020, COVID-19 drastically impacted life both in and outside the hospital. As healthcare workers struggled to treat the fast-spreading virus, safety restrictions isolated patients, separating them from their friends and families at their most critical moments. During these desperate times, a small bedside iPad pilot program grew into a pivotal initiative for UHB Charity, providing a lifeline of communication for patients, staff and family.
As telemedicine enabled connection via technology such as Virtual Visits, Jamf also allowed IT admins to rapidly deploy and manage hundreds of devices where needed. This successful iPad program continues to encourage adoption of new applications supporting patients and staff.
Prior to the pandemic, the UHB Charity funded small levels of technology in specific areas, primarily providing bedside iPads for entertainment for patients in the children’s cancer unit.
As the Queen Elizabeth Hospital has the largest single- floor critical care unit in Europe, “We’ve been the worst affected Trust in the whole of the UK in terms of the number of COVID patients,” said Charlotte Schofield, UHB Charity Fundraising Director.
The impact of COVID-19 restrictions was overwhelming. “We saw a lot of patients in our hospitals who had no access to the outside world,” said Schofield. As isolation and loneliness spread, “We knew that we needed to do something very, very quickly to support not only our patients, but also their loved ones and family members that were on the outside.”
Sophie Westlake, UHB Charity Communications and Fundraising Officer, said, “The main request we were getting from staff and patients was, ‘I need to speak to my loved one.’ The charity was very keen to respond, how can we make that possible?”
The solution: Use iPad devices for video calls between patients and loved ones.
Why iPad?
“They’re fairly simple for people to pick up and use,” said Tom Joyce, UHB Charity Operations Manager. The shallow learning curve, coupled with the availability of the telehealth workflow they needed made Virtual Visits videoconferencing integration with Jamf Pro an easy choice for their iPads.
What initially started as a pilot program providing iPads for a small number of wards, quickly scaled into a major project distributing iPads to almost every ward and department, to give as many patients as possible access to communication with their loved ones.
The first wave of deployment saw 250 iPad devices distributed throughout the four hospitals, eventually encompassing over 350 devices.
The positive impact was immediate. “We had a gentleman, Charlie, he was 87, never used technology before,” said Schofield. “He was becoming very closed up, and the nurses were seeing a real shift in his mental state.” Once an iPad came his way, his entire family purchased their own devices and learned how to videoconference to communicate.
“The first time they saw each other, they said it was like they were hugging each other. Even though they were on a screen, they hadn’t seen or spoken to each other for so long, that it was that powerful,” said Schofield.
I think the only word for it was a lifeline. Vital for them, and so desperately, desperately important.
Westlake was told of an elderly couple with COVID-19, of which only the husband had to be hospitalized. “They were both like 75, 80 years old, and had never spent a night apart.” After he was released from the hospital, “He said it was a lifeline, being able to speak to his wife every day, and he can’t imagine what would have happened if he couldn’t speak to her every day.”
These personal connections affected both patients’ mental and physical well-being.
For staff, seeing what it meant to patients just to be able to speak to their family members, offered the little encouragement so many needed during this trying time.
To help support staff, the hospitals also established emergency technology hubs, providing safe spaces for healthcare workers to step away and use iPads to connect with their own families.
He said it was a lifeline, being able to speak to his wife every day, and he can’t imagine what would have happened if he couldn’t speak to her every day.
Technology takes over and inspires new uses.
Since introducing iPads for patient communication throughout the UHB Charity Hospitals, there’s been a societal change in the adoption of technologies like Zoom videoconferencing for work and personal life. “Whereas before a video call was something that only an uber-geek got involved with, now it’s all part and parcel of people’s every day,” said Joyce.
When it comes to hospital visits, virtual may be the new normal. For those at long distances, busy with other commitments, or still dealing with restrictions, the opportunity to check-in via video call continues to be important.
As for current training, a short one-on-one IT walk-through accompanied by a simply written manual has proven adequate for most initial device training.
Healthcare staff train less tech-savvy or older patients in the use of iPads, so that they’re more comfortable with their use in the hospital. From mindfulness and glucose tracking apps to text-to-speech accessibility apps , there is unlimited potential for personalization and addition of apps useful to treatment plans or patient welfare.
Scalable management made simple with Jamf
One important lesson Joyce passes on to other organizations planning to deploy a fleet of devices: forget about using outdated solutions like using spreadsheets to keep track of device information.
Now that he’s familiar with the wealth of information that can be captured and accessed in Jamf Pro, he’s migrated the data.
Taking advantage of the full Jamf Pro platform simplifies inventory management, allowing Joyce to not only keep track of devices in multiple locations, but also to monitor their usage.
This proved important when he discovered that some of the iPads were initially distributed to places that were too busy to make use of them.
By accessing data in Jamf Pro, he was able to identify devices that were not being used, ask for them back, and reallocate them to the places that were asking for more.
As for all those new app requests, installing a new app is as easy as logging into Jamf, purchasing the app through Apple Business Manager, and pushing it out to the Smart Group or device of their choice.
And very importantly, while Jamf Pro offers many powerful tools for management, they aren’t too complicated for a non-IT professional to understand or use. As Westlake notes, “I’m not techie at all, and I could do it.”
Worst of times, best of times
While the pandemic has tested healthcare providers and patients in unprecedented ways, UHB Charity empowered patients and staff to use a new channel to connect at the time they needed it most, all by providing Apple devices and telemedicine powered by Jamf.
As technology continues to transform the healthcare landscape, you can trust Jamf to offer the next evolution of solutions to support you.