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Virtual wards allow East Cheshire NHS Trust to bring hospital-level care to homes
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East Cheshire NHS Trust has transformed patient care through their virtual ward service, allowing individuals to receive specialist treatment from home. The service was introduced in January 2023 and by early 2025 the initiative had benefited over 1,335 patients, helping to reduce hospital admissions and allowing patients to recover from their own beds. The service cares for 40 to 50 patients daily, providing a vital alternative to hospital stays and alleviating pressure on NHS wards.
It’s not just about saving money or freeing up beds — patients want to be at home. In hospital, they’re away from their family, they can’t sleep properly, and they’re at higher risk of infections. At home, they recover faster, maintain their independence, and receive the care they need in a familiar environment."
East Cheshire has long been at the forefront of digital innovation in healthcare. Having already implemented EMIS Web Bed Management for their community beds, the trust was able to use this to support their transition to a virtual care model. This ensured a smooth rollout of their virtual ward service, allowing for efficient patient tracking and multidisciplinary team (MDT) collaboration.
A more efficient approach to patient tracking
EMIS Web Bed Management provides a clear and accessible dashboard to track patient progress, whether they are in a hospital bed or receiving care at home. This dual-view system, offering both list-based and graphical representations, has been particularly beneficial in streamlining workflows and enhancing visibility across teams.
"The graphical view allowed us to roll out a much more user-friendly dashboard to our consultants. They can see patients, when they came in, and what’s wrong with them. It’s a clear, visual way of managing care," explains Andrea.
For East Cheshire NHS Trust, a crucial aspect of the virtual ward’s success is its flexibility in meeting patient needs. If an individual receiving care in the community deteriorates, they can be 'stepped up' to receive intensive virtual ward support without the need for hospital admission. Similarly, patients can be 'stepped down' from hospital to continue their recovery at home on a virtual ward, freeing up hospital beds for more serious cases.
“With virtual wards, stepping up now doesn’t mean a hospital admission- it means patients receive care at home but with more multidisciplinary support.” said Andrea.
Supporting multidisciplinary collaboration and telehealth integration
One of the standout benefits of EMIS Web is its ability to connect diverse clinical teams, allowing them to provide a more co- ordinated approach to patient care. By centralising patient information, the system ensures that consultants, clinical practitioners, district nurses, and rapid response teams have immediate access to the same real-time data.
The team set up large screens to display Bed Management dashboards, making it easy for MDTs to see patient status, track capacity, and make informed decisions
Liam Radcliffe, Digital Applications Manager at East Cheshire NHS Trust said "Our consultants were gobsmacked when they saw how they could track all their patients in one place. During MDT meetings, everyone can see the same information on big screens, making care coordination much more effective."
The integration of EMIS Web with telehealth solutions further enhances care. Through a data-sharing agreement with Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, who deliver telehealth services across Cheshire, Merseyside and West Lancashire, clinicians can access telehealth records within EMIS Web, providing a complete picture of each patient’s condition.
"If a patient needs telehealth monitoring, our teams can see that data in EMIS Web. We share screens during MDTs and update records in real time, ensuring everyone is working from the same information," explains Andrea.
Improving patient outcomes
Clinicians have observed marked improvements in patient recovery rates.
Patients on wards don’t recover as well as those at home. There’s a greater risk of bugs, reduced mobility, and a lack of social interaction. At home, they’re surrounded by family and have nurses visiting as needed — it makes a huge difference,"
Enabling capacity planning and tackling the elective care backlog
With pressure on hospitals to reduce waiting times and tackle the elective care backlog, virtual wards play a crucial role in ensuring the right patients are in the right setting.
"EMIS Web helps us identify capacity across our services. Our advanced clinical practitioners, consultants, and urgent community response teams can see where space is available in a virtual ward and quickly step patients up or down as needed. This means that beds are used for those who need them most," Andrea explains.
By embedding virtual wards within their wider community care offering, East Cheshire NHS Trust have not only enhanced patient outcomes, but also increased efficiency across clinical teams. Their experience demonstrates the power of digital solutions in modern healthcare — making patient care better, more streamlined, and cost-effective. As a result, virtual wards are proving instrumental in helping the NHS meet its targets, freeing up hospital beds, and enabling patients to recover comfortably at home.