Asthma virtual ward: Recovering at home after hospital admission

An asthma virtual ward has been launched in Leicestershire and is being used as a supported discharge service for patients that were admitted to hospital after experiencing non-life-threatening acute exacerbations of their asthma. By using Spirit Health’s remote patient monitoring platform Clinitouch, these patients can now be supported at home.

Aims & Objectives

• To enable safe, supported discharge from hospital following an asthma admission
• To reduce re-admission rate for asthma patients that had an asthmatic episode
• To provide patient centred care for asthma patients
• To improve adherence to their personalised asthma action plan (PAAP)

How it works

• A patient - referred by a consultant at a Leicestershire hospital. The patient is onboarded by the onboarding team, provided with the necessary equipment for remote monitoring and safely discharged from hospital. At home, the patient answers asthma related health questions and records peak flow readings using Clinitouch.  
• Clinitouch - the platform has unique algorithms that automatically analyse and risk-score the data. It will highlight when any patient moves outside the agreed parameters.  
• Respiratory Team - remotely monitor asthma patients daily using the information the patients submit on Clinitouch. If a patient is flagged amber or red on Clinitouch, interventions are made. Examples that cause a red rating are excessive use of reliever, severe or increased shortness of breathlessness and triggers on their peak flow rate.

Dr Noel O'Kelly, Medical Director, Spirit Health says:

“Under this collaboration, patients admitted to hospital after an asthmatic-episode can be safely discharged earlier.”

"They are supported by healthcare professionals at home whilst they recover, reducing their risk of readmission.

For asthma patients this is a great benefit as they are supported in their recovery on the virtual ward. Plus, they can get back to a sense of normality at home whilst still being connected to their clinicians.”