Overview 

Cardiac TeleMedical Monitoring Service 

Bringing ECG expertise into every surgery (or home)

The Cardiac Monitoring Centre, based in Manchester, serves the whole of the UK and has been operational for over three years.  Our Consulting Cardiologists advisory board includes Dr David Lipkin, (London) - Chair, Dr Derek Rowlands (Manchester), Dr Bernard Clarke (Manchester) and Dr. Kevin Jennings (Aberdeen).   

Senior cardiac nurses and doctors staff the monitoring centre on a 24 hrs basis. The technology enables clients to set up voice communication with the centre and to transmit vital parameters, such as a full 12 lead ECG, 1 lead ECG (for arrhythmia) and weight (for CHF), via the telephone, to the centre.  

We are currently servicing PCTs / SHAs / Surgeries / Walk-in centres / Community hospitals / HM Prisons / Health Screening organisations and similar bodies.  

The Lancashire and South Cumbria Cardiac Network report on the service can viewed here

The Greater Manchester Cardiac Network  report has indicated that 63.7% of patients who would otherwise have been referred, avoided referral to hospital, due to the service. To view the report please click here.

The National HSJ award 2007 (‘Improving Care with e-Technology’) was awarded to NHS North West and Broomwell Healthwatch and the

NHS 2008 NW Health & Social Care Award for "Innovative Informations & Communications Technology" was awarded to Lancs & South Cumbria

with Broomwell Healthwatch.

Service to GPs – from Secondary Care >> Primary Care

Importing ECG expertise into every surgery

12 lead ECG : A significant number of GPs do not have ECG equipment or do not feel confident in its interpretation. 

Our service effectively brings ECG expertise into every surgery. 

We offer a service to GPs whereby they can use our 12 lead ECG in their practice (or carry the light and portable unit on house calls). The GPs / nurses take the ECG readings and transmit them (via the telephone) to the centre. We give an immediate verbal evaluation and send a written report shortly thereafter.   (Where GPs have their own 12 Lead ECGs but wish to have the benefit of our expertise, they transmit their ECG readings to our centre by fax or e-mail)

Arrhythmia monitoring (1 lead ECG):  Our simple 1 lead ECG, worn like a watch, records heart rhythm and is a most effective, convenient and economical  ‘cardiac memo’. The units are lent by GPs to patients and the recordings transmitted and evaluated at our centre.  

The service enables patients to be dealt with at the surgery and avoid unnecessary Hospital (A&E or Outpatient) referral. 

Service for Patients  - from Primary Care >> Home Care

The service is available for patients who want (or need) to be monitored from home.  Such patients can call the centre at any time to discuss their symptoms. The centre has their medical records (and a ‘baseline’ ECG) and this together with a description of their symptoms and a transmission of their current ECG, enables the centre to make an immediate evaluation. 

Where treatment is indicated, the service accelerates treatment because patients who are hesitant to call a doctor at say 02.00 and who might otherwise wait until the morning to speak to their doctor will not hesitate to contact the centre.  In such cases, the centre will arrange for referral to hospital, within minutes and transmit the medical records, baseline and current ECG to the receiving hospital, thus significantly shortening ‘door-to-needle’ and ‘sensation-to-needle’ times with the commensurate huge improvement in chances of a full recovery.  On the other hand, where emergency treatment is not indicated, patients will receive the appropriate reassurance that all is well. 

POST MI and POST OPERATIVE PATIENTS

Post MI (heart attack) or Post operative patients, who might otherwise be kept in hospital for observation, can now be monitored from home, thus empowering them and enriching their quality of life whilst saving hospitals (A&E and Outpatients) unnecessary visits.

CHF PATIENTS

Similarly, CHF patients are easily monitored from home by having their weight transmitted automatically to our centre and area nurses / GPs / cardiologists alerted where treatment is indicated.

Links with doctors/ consultants and hospitals 

Doctors and consultants are updated automatically with client information, through the web or via e-mail / fax to enable them to take the appropriate clinical decisions.  Similarly, where A&E rooms are able to receive such information, we transmit patient medical history, baseline ECG and current ECG, in advance of patient arrival, thereby saving yet more valuable time.

Other services

The centre monitors other cardiac related conditions such as hypertension, COPD, SpO2 and Glucose levels.

Executive Summary

1.         From Secondary >> Primary care >> Home care. The project is in tune with government strategic thinking. The NHS aims to move much of the diagnosis and treatment away from the secondary and into the primary sector.  This project enables that process and even takes it one step further; from primary care to home care. 

2.         Empowerment and choice.  Clients can now be monitored from the comfort of the surgery or home.  The convenience and immediacy of diagnosis greatly improve patient care.

3.         Better diagnosis:  GPs and Walk–In centres are now able to make much quicker and better-informed diagnosis, thus improving the quality of care and delivery.

4.         A significant financial saving to the NHS.   Hospitals (A&E or Outpatients) need no longer receive patients who ought not be there, with patients monitored from surgeries / home instead of hospitals.  This amounts to significant savings for the NHS

5.            Efficient targeting of resources.  NHS resources can be targeted where they are needed most, eg community nurses can be directed to CHF patients who actually need immediate treatment.  This  translates into significant saving for the NHS.

6.         Sensation to needle time. The NHS has made great strides in shortening ‘door to needle’ time.  This project takes this further by tackling the far greater problem and dramatically shortening the ‘sensation to needle’ time.

7.         The Economy as a whole.  The vast number of lost working days wasted through people having to wait around for (hospital and even surgery) appointments could be eliminated through our facilities and services.

8.         A win-win project. There are projects which are excellent for patients, (such as very expensive cancer drugs), but bad for the NHS and there are projects which are good for the NHS, (such as reducing hospital beds), but bad for patients.  This project is a  ‘win-win’ for everyone.

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