The Royal Preston Hospital in Lancashire has deployed a digital asset management (DAM) solution to help its central hospital nursing team overcome visiting restrictions and a reduction in the number of patient appointments during and after the pandemic.

When hospital restrictions were introduced, the tissue viability team, which uses clinical photography to plan treatment, monitor progress and document recovery, had to adapt to minimise contact between patients and staff, to protect both groups from any risk of exposure and infection. As a result, the medical photography team Leader, choose a clinical uploader app from FotoWare partner Medialogix that fully integrated with the Royal Preston Hospital’s existing FotoWare digital asset management system.

The new solution, FotoWare, improves workflow, collects and keeps patient images secure, documents patient consent and collects all associated metadata, while reducing the need for any unrequired contact. The app’s accessibility through easy-to-use web front ends and different plugins provides a fully controlled workflow and ensures that users are appropriately registered and have access to sensitive clinical information in line with GDPR requirements.

“It became clear some time ago that we needed a solution to meet the increasing requests for pressure sore images, as well as one that allowed access 24/7. My department had a digital asset management system in place called FotoWare so integrating the Clinical Uploader App was a simple but effective solution as it also integrated with the hospital’s patient record system,” says medical photography team leader, Andrea Jones.

Now, with the new Clinical Uploader App deployment in conjunction with FotoWare, there has been a reduction in the number of staff contacts with the patient from three to one, which has had a positive impact on infection control measures without compromising patient care and safety. By using the app, integrated with FotoWare, the tissue viability team can triage which patients require one on one care just by viewing the photographs from an office location.