New bleep replacement system gives Somerset doctors more time to complete tasks on a night shift

Findings from a new system introduced at Musgrove Park Hospital show a significant increase in the number of tasks that postgraduate doctors in training are able to complete during a night shift.

The Infinity Health tool has replaced non-emergency bleeps and is helping our doctors to coordinate care out-of-hours more easily, giving them time to complete more tasks for patients.

In the first two years, our doctors have been able to complete an average of 51 tasks per shift, compared with the previous total of 36 – an increase of 42%. This is alongside a ‘91 minutes per doctor per shift’ saving as revealed in an independent first-year report led by Unity Insights.

Since Infinity was introduced at our trust in May 2021, over 200 NHS colleagues, across 27 wards, have replaced non-emergency bleeps with the tool, allowing them to create and assign tasks to their team, with the right information, and also track patient care in real-time.

Our ward colleagues used to bleep postgraduate doctors in training during out-of-hours shifts, who then had to find a phone to call them back to find out the detail and urgency, which was time-consuming and took them away from patients.

We recruited an out-of-hours coordinator to act as a central point of contact to triage task requests from the wards to our out of hours team, with the Infinity system also playing a huge part in helping them to triage, prioritise and allocate tasks.

As a result, no tasks are missed and less time is wasted responding to bleeps and clarifying details, with the whole process of requesting tasks now much more efficient.

Dr Sophie Gealy, one of our postgraduate doctors in training, said the Infinity Health system has made a huge difference so far.

“By using the system, I’m provided with much more information a lot faster, meaning my job list is easily visualised, easier to prioritise and makes task management a lot slicker," she said.

“It’s more secure and there’s accountability when assigning tasks, which can be an issue with verbal handover of tasks.”

Dr Luke Gompels, our chief clinical information officer, said: “Together with our partners Infinity Health, we’re making digital working the norm for so many areas of healthcare, including the way our colleagues communicate with each other.

“I’m really proud of the incredible impact replacing bleeps has had in helping the team to provide more patient care out-of-hours. I look forward to the next phase of our partnership.”

Elliott Engers, CEO at Infinity Health, said: “Our previous user surveys showed that Infinity was giving Somerset colleagues 1.5 hours back per shift and now we know that an increase in capacity is allowing them to do more tasks for patients such as clinical reviews, diagnostic tests, and treatments.

“As NHS colleagues work hard to reduce long waiting lists following the pandemic, Infinity can make it easier by helping them to do their job more efficiently, safely, and with less stress.”

*Please note the computer screen on the photo is for illustrative purposes only - it is not real patient details.