University Hospital Monklands has become the first hospital in Scotland to open an operational command centre. 

Developed as part of the Monklands replacement/refurbishment project (MRRP), the centre gives real-time information on the status of the hospital, including emergency department activity, beds numbers, details of ambulances due to arrive.

The centre is also the first to incorporate information posted on Care Opinion, an online forum which enables people to share their experiences of health and care throughout the UK.

Donna McHenry, assistant service manager, commented:

“The command centre is the first of its kind in Scotland and one of only a few in Britain. It is exciting for Monklands and MRRP to be at the forefront of using digital technology to address some of the challenges that the NHS faces. 

“With live information at our finger tips, the centre will enable us to make decisions which are data-driven and to anticipate and prevent any potential issues.” 

The command centre has large screens which allow staff to see the status of each patient, bed and ward throughout the hospital.

The system is intended to help effectively manage to workforce resource using visual data and enabling understanding of staffing in real time. 

It is acute division-wide so staff can see information from Hairmyres and Wishaw hospitals too; a critical aspect given there are several points of entry into an acute hospital system. 

Chief of nursing service at University Hospital Monklands, Karen Goudie, said:

“Everything we do comes back to what is best for our patients. Delivering the right care, at the right place, at the right time is the goal of effective and efficient patient flow. One of the most innovative ways to achieve this goal is by using an operational command centre.

“While it is essential to have all of the hard data, I am particularly pleased that we managed to incorporate the information which people have posted on Care Opinion. We have the first hospital-level Care Opinion dashboard in the country. This allows us to identify any themes or frequent issues people are experiencing and enables us to rectify this at the earliest opportunity.” 

Pictured: Front (left to right): Dr Gordon McNeish, consultant in emergency medicine, Donna McHenry, assistant service manager, & Karen Goudie, University Hospital Monklands chief of nursing service, with senior staff from University Hospital Monklands and NHS Lanarkshire.