Frontline staff: Dealing with poor mobile connectivity when every second matters

Disconnected care: The impact of poor mobile connectivity in NHS hospitals

A three-part series

Hospitals can be some of the most challenging environments to deliver assured mobile connectivity to. Thick walls, miles of ducting, complex layouts, and materials to keep people safe, such as lead shielding in x-ray suites, block outdoor mobile signal from entering. But the right mobile hospital connectivity delivered with a dedicated multi-operator in-building system helps improve the experience of everyone in the building, whether that’s the clinicians, other members of the workforce, patients, or visitors.

By Emily Harby, Account Manager – NHS at Freshwave

As a former NHS paediatric nurse, I’ve experienced first-hand the incredible work NHS staff do in caring for people during the happiest, and sometimes the most challenging, times of their lives. I’ve also experienced the frustration and delays in care caused by unreliable and unavailable mobile connectivity and the negative impact this can have on staff and patients alike. 

The NHS is continuously changing, adapting and improving. And part of that improvement is coming from fantastic digital tools designed to help doctors, nurses, paramedics and other NHS staff members to deliver care more efficiently and effectively. These tools can only be transformative however, with the right hospital connectivity in place to support their use.

People are the NHS’s most valuable resource

The NHS employs around 1.3 million people on a full-time equivalent basis, and these people are the most valuable resource the organisation has. From consultant to caterer, paramedic to porter, each person plays a part in delivering care to those that need it. And all are under pressure to deliver this in the most efficient way possible. This requirement has been further underlined by the government’s 10 Year Health Plan for England setting the NHS a target to deliver a 2% year-on-year productivity gain for the next three years.

Hospital connectivity: Powering productivity

One of the key enablers of productivity is the right digital infrastructure. There are a multitude of different teams involved in caring for just one patient, many of whom are not ward based and therefore require contacting, usually via a mobile device. Staff are often asked to contact a member of the multidisciplinary team (MDT) once a patient has completed an action (for example, woken up or had something to eat). Unfortunately, staff are often unable to immediately fulfil this contact request due to the call going straight to voicemail. This has a knock-on impact on the speed of patient care as well as on staff resource. 

For hospitals with a dedicated multi-operator in-building system, these problems can be eliminated. The MDT can be easily contactable, reducing delays. Other members of the team can be seamlessly coordinated, freeing up time to spend with patients, rather than on administrative tasks. Reliable connectivity also helps speed up coordinated responses to emergencies.

Keeping care flowing in connected hospitals

Assured hospital connectivity allows the NHS workforce to get more value from devices – be they mobiles, tablets or laptops – and software that a trust has already purchased. There has been a huge push over the last few years for trusts to move to digital tools – streamlining how information is captured, stored, shared and used. But for health professionals to get the full value from these digital tools whilst moving around the hospital, they need to have access to reliable mobile connectivity. Frequently, I found the Wi-Fi system in a hospital became congested (or even failed completely), meaning I was unable to update records in real time or access a patient’s record or drug chart. Sometimes this would remove me from being by a patient’s bedside, as I’d need to move around the ward in order to find connection and access these digital records. 

Even in fast-paced, high-risk areas, Wi-Fi was repeatedly temperamental. Whilst working in A&E, the challenges of poor Wi-Fi would often come to light during paramedic handovers, where paramedics’ handheld devices would be unable to connect to the hospital Wi-Fi. This would often result in the paramedic needing to return to their ambulance, reload their patient notes, then come back to the department to complete handover. This all could have been avoided with the right indoor cellular connectivity. 

Being confident support is just a phone call away

When you’re used to working within a ward environment, having to complete a lone escort of a patient can feel quite isolating – especially if travel was required between different hospitals. I’ve experienced occasions where I would need to contact a member of the team, to either ask a question or to inform them of our return to the ward and would be unable to get through to the ward due to the hospital landlines being tied up. 

Many a nurse in charge would have a dedicated mobile phone for us to contact in this instance, however, with there being limited cellular connectivity inside hospital buildings, these often went straight to voicemail. Not only do these scenarios cause delays for patients and the respective hospitals, they also impact staff wellbeing, with staff members feeling apprehensive to go on transfers for lack of support whilst away from the wards. 

When hospital connectivity fails, care falters

As Prime Minister Keir Starmer said when launching the 10 Year Health Plan: “Our Plan for Change promised to make our NHS fit for the future and that’s what we are getting on with delivering – fixing the foundations of our health service and making sure it will be there to look after us for decades to come.”

Mobile connectivity is one of the most important foundations of the NHS that will enable digital tools for decades to come. When connectivity fails, care falters. By providing the right hospital connectivity to the NHS workforce, they’ll have the right tools to help them provide better care to the country.

The second part of our series on disconnected care will explore how the patient experience is affected by poor connectivity.

Find out more about how Freshwave work with patients and clinicians.