First hospital operational command centre in Scotland opens at Monklands

Developed as part of the Monklands Replacement/Refurbishment Project (MRRP), the centre gives real-time information on the status of the hospital; emergency department activity, beds numbers, details of ambulances due to arrive through to public feedback via Care Opinion.

Donna McHenry, assistant service manager, said: “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 huge screens on the wall which allows staff to see the status of each patient, bed and ward throughout the hospital.

The system will also help to effectively managing workforce resource due to visual data and understanding of staffing in real time.

The system is acute division-wide so staff can see information from Hairmyres and Wishaw too. This level of integration is critical because there are several points of entry into an acute hospital system.

Karen Goudie, University Hospital Monklands chief of nursing service, 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.

“I would like to thank colleagues for their ongoing support to ensure we get the best out of the operational command centre.”