A healthcare platform for women and babies that makes it easy for pregnant women and their midwives to stay in touch and share information has been rolled out across the UK.
The BadgerNet service, developed by Clevermed and hosted on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, is being used in nearly every neonatal unit in the UK, as well as many maternity units.
It allows healthcare professionals to record notes on maternity patients in real-time, whether they are in the hospital, the community or at home. It also provides an extensive solution for the smallest and sickest babies that need neonatal care. Authorised colleagues can then view the documentation almost immediately.
Women can use a PC, tablet or smartphone to read their own medical notes, look at healthcare leaflets recommended by their midwife, self-refer to maternity services and much more at any time of the day or night.
Victoria Mustafa, a Digital Midwife at Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust, estimates the BadgerNet system is saving the Trust around £100,000 a year through efficiencies. Previously, staff had to enter patient information into three different systems but now it only has to be entered into BadgerNet. Giving medical teams a single view of maternity information has allowed the Trust to cut the time it takes to discharge a new mother from 90 minutes to 10 minutes, freeing up beds and allowing staff to spend more time with patients who need extra care.
“I would fight to the death if someone said they were to take BadgerNet away,” Mustafa said. “That’s how transformational it has been for us. The level of care we can offer to expectant and new mothers is exceptional; it means they are less stressed, which is better for the baby, and allows us to provide a high level of care from any location, at any time.”
Lauren Putman is pregnant and uses the maternity services at Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust. She has been using the BadgerNet Maternity Notes app for the past few months. “The app is very easy to navigate,” she said. “I like that my midwife can recommend leaflets for me to read at the appropriate gestations and that these pop up when I first log into the app. It’s also great that I can see my blood results on the app and these are not just told to me over the phone.”
The BadgerNet system has replaced paper maternity notes given to patients at Trusts including Epsom and St Helier. Because notes are now digital, any healthcare worker with a mother’s permission can access her notes, and the Azure-based system secures and protects all information.
Pregnant women can upload any details about plans for birth and feedback on antenatal care, labour and birth experiences.
Mustafa added: “All our systems are now interfaced. Previously, community midwives would have to print off a woman’s blood results, take those with them to a clinic and spend ages searching through them. Now it’s all on BadgerNet. They can see the woman’s lab results and antenatal scans straightaway on their tablet, so they no longer have to ask the woman to see copies of her scan. Previously, if they had forgotten a copy of their scan, the midwife would not have been able to carry out the appropriate checks needed. That doesn’t happen anymore, the midwives have access to everything at the touch of a button, which improves clinical safety.
“The system also reminds women about appointments so the number of missed appointments has dropped dramatically.”
BadgerNet has been developed by Clevermed, a medical software company based in Edinburgh. It produces a range of products and services including fully integrated patient clinical care records, reporting services and patient portal services. Its services are used in more than 250 units in multiple countries and regions.
Clevermed works directly with its customers and uses feedback to update its services regularly. For example, during lockdown, the company updated its platform with accurate and relevant information about COVID-19 that could be read by medical staff and patients.
The number of people allowed onto a hospital unit has been restricted during the pandemic, so BadgerNet is also being used to share birth information and updates with partners and families.
To grow the company and deliver services to more customers, Clevermed chose to move from an on-premise data centre to Microsoft Azure.
Jane Stephenson, Chief Operating Officer at Clevermed, said: “Azure has the size, scale and stability we were looking for. Maternity services and neonatal care can never stop so it’s important that our cloud platform is incredibly reliable and easily scalable.
“We have more than 200 units accessing the system, and it’s updated 1,000 times a minute. We needed a cloud partner who could help us scale demand when we needed it, and Azure ticked all the boxes.”
Click here for more information about BadgerNet.
