vCreate, the NHS-trusted video service, is launching a new feature to enable clinical teams to digitise paper forms and share reminders with patients, families and staff. The vCreate Forms feature will help hospitals progress towards their paperless targets, standardise care across regions and streamline the patient pathway.
Despite calls for the NHS to digitise more healthcare services, many departments still rely on paper forms for clinical tasks. The vCreate Forms feature helps teams to minimise their printing and paper costs, reduce the need for face-to-face appointments and create a digital audit of responses.
vCreate facilitates the secure sharing of videos, photos and messages between clinical teams, patients and families. Used in more than 200 units across the UK, the service is predominantly offered to families in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) and patients/carers in neurology centres.
With the introduction of the new feature, clinical users can now also use the service to create customisable forms including patient experience surveys, discharge checklists, competency targets and more. As well as traditional question types, teams can add images and videos, and request uploads from patients and families.
The Forms feature allows healthcare networks and regions to share customisable form templates with all their units and teams, helping standardise care and supporting multi-centre collaboration.
Lead Care Coordinator at the North West Neonatal Operational Delivery Network (ODN), Sarah Fullwood, said: “It has been great to collaborate with vCreate in the development of a digital forms and reminders feature. Digitising forms is vital in helping us prioritise patient care and providing families with a holistic healthcare experience.
We’re working together on a standardised Parent Passport template that can be shared across our region and beyond. This will help empower families, providing them with the tools and knowledge they need to help care for their baby throughout the neonatal journey, and standardise the care parents receive across our network.”
Accessible from anywhere and on any device, patients and families can submit data with little disruption while teams monitor responses, sign-off progress and, if required, upload responses to the Electronic Patient Record (EPR).
Available in multiple languages, all forms and reminders are automatically translated into the user’s language of choice and back to the original language for clinical teams, reducing the need for additional translation services.
Ben Moore, Founder of vCreate said: “We’re excited to provide clinical teams with the ability to customise, remotely share and monitor digital forms and reminders with colleagues, patients and families. In addition to reducing the impact on the environment and the costs associated with using paper forms, these new features are intended to streamline clinical processes, standardise care, and enhance the patient experience.”
