Headingley Hall is a picturesque residential home set in a peaceful road in Leeds. The home has 57 residential rooms, 30 independent living apartments and is surrounded by beautifully landscaped gardens. Headingley Hall is currently using video technology (telemedicine) to help support their residents and is already experiencing positive outcomes.

The video service is provided by a joint partnership (Immedicare) between Airedale NHS Foundation Trust and a technical company called Involve. The Immedicare telemedicine service is delivered using high quality video calls to the Digital Hub at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust. Calls are answered by a team of clinical call handlers who are supported by a highly skilled multi-disciplinary team of Nurses, Therapists and Paramedics, ensuring patients receive a clinical assessment and any advice they may need straight away. This means a smoother pathway and better experience for patients, with the right care in the right place at the right time. There are currently 500 care homes nationally benefiting from the Immedicare service.

Headingley Hall commenced using the telemedicine service in February 2017 as part of the West Yorkshire Accelerator project led by NHS Leeds CCGs and Adult Social Care. The aim of the project was to improve services available to residential homes and prevent any unnecessary hospital admissions. Sharon Earnshaw General Manager at Headingley Hall was keen to find out more about the initiative and visited the Digital Hub, based within Airedale Hospital, to see how the system worked. Sharon could immediately envisage the benefits from having the service installed so agreed to pilot the scheme.

As part of implementation an Immedicare engineer visits the home and installs the Telemedicine device. The home is assigned a dedicated Relationship Manager who is the first point of contact for the home. Heather Bygrave, Immedicare Relationship Manager discussed her role and experience of working with Headingley Hall.

I am responsible for ensuring the project runs efficiently by providing a strong link between Immedicare, the NHS Commissioners and all the care homes involved. I also liaise with the Digital Hub, the technical and customer service teams and other local clinical services. I provide individual care homes with training and reassurance to ensure the residents receive the benefits of our service 24 hours a day.

I have worked with the General Manager Sharon and her team at Headingley Hall since February 2018 and from the very start, Sharon was committed and engaged her team, residents and their relatives with the idea of telemedicine. Sharon quickly realised what a great resource telemedicine would be and how it could benefit the home by assisting in avoiding non-emergency GP visits and reducing A&E admissions. I absolutely love my role in ensuring the residents, their family members and care home staff achieve the best possible outcomes.

Sharon General Manager at Headingley Hall shared their positive findings.

We had no concerns about using the telemedicine service as we were provided with lots of useful information from Immedicare which answered any of our questions. We find the technology easy to use and we’ve had plenty of training from Heather, who has been very supportive. Whenever we have new staff start, we can contact Heather for additional training, plus she regularly keeps in touch with updates about the service which is helpful. During April we avoided 14 hospital admissions by using the Immedicare service.

The service is benefitting staff across the home, a carer shared their thoughts on the service.

I feel like the nurses at the hub are very supportive and knowledgeable. They provide a lot of reassurance for both residents and staff.

We asked Sharon about the residents’ and their families views on Immedicare.

Our residents feel very confident when speaking to a health professional through Immedicare. Some of our residents are very anxious about the thought of going to hospital and express their wish to remain at home. By using the service to obtain a clinical assessment, we have been able to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and further distress to the residents, which is also comforting for their relatives. We think the service is fantastic.

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