Alertacall’s innovative solution to bed blocking gets major boost

WellBeing Proactive, an Alertacall service, has successfully secured funding and partnership with one of the UK’s top universities for its solution to hospital bed blocking.

Members from the Alertacall team were among global businesses including Unilever and Samsung at an event held at the University of Manchester in February. The challenge was to present a project proposal at the Healthy Ageing and Technology Innovation Lab event.

And Alertacall’s innovative WellBeing Proactive service was selected to move forward to a three-month exploration phase.

Martin Cutbill, director of Alertacall, was on the pitching team.

He said: “One of the key reasons why many patients stay in hospital longer than they need to is because of delays in setting up follow on care and support, largely due to cost and availability pressures.

“The WellBeing Proactive service provides daily support 365 days a year, at a small fraction of the cost.”

WellBeing Proactive is based on Alertacall’s ingenious technology, which is used across the social care and consumer sector, and can detect a customer’s changing needs.

It allows people who want to retain their independence, but want the reassurance of support when needed, to live more fulfilled lives.

Users of the service interact with the Alertacall team by pressing a button on a special device each day.

If for any reason they are unable to do this, or simply want to speak to someone, the Alertacall team follows a process to ensure the service user is OK and to establish contact.

The service also has the ability to provide medication and appointment reminders, and deliver social prescribing messages all of which will enhance recovery rates following a hospital admission.

The Alertacall team, which also comprised chief executive James Batchelor, two research fellows and a research associate, argued that implementation of the WellBeing Proactive facility would reduce the number of delayed hospital discharges.

The service is designed to reduce readmissions, reduce GP appointments, reduce the slide into frailty of individuals discharged from hospital and limit social isolation and loneliness, which is leading to higher levels of engagement with health and social care teams.

The team’s presentation and project idea was praised by the university and selected to move forward into an exploratory phase, during which £4,000 in seed funding will be used to help the team gain a better understanding of how the WellBeing Proactive service could be applied.

Martin further commented: “We are delighted to have the support of the University of Manchester. This will enable not just an effectively designed trial, but will also provide an independent validation of the benefits delivered.”

For more information on the project or to find out how your organisation could use WellBeing Proactive to help reduce delayed transfers of care, email contact@alertacall.com or call us on 0808 208 1234.