A Virtual Ward is a healthcare model which supports patients with complex medical or social needs to get the care and support they need from a hospital or community health provider, without being in a hospital setting. The framework uses a multi-disciplinary team approach to patient care, bringing together a diverse group of healthcare professionals to provide the patient with care and support to keep them well and independent. This approach helps to avoid hospital admission, and reduces the need for outpatient appointments, A&E attendances, and GP home visits.  It also helps to keep patients in their own preferred place of care.

Ardens has created a Virtual Ward Template which supports this way of working. It allows for the recording of referral and admission to, and discharge from a virtual ward, allowing a GP practice to care for and support patients in the community.

It also allows for the recording of general screening results, Long Covid observations, frailty assessment, social prescribing, and care planning.

The Virtual Ward Template is located in the Ardens > Consultation templates > Administrative folder.

Access the template in the patient record in one of the following ways:

• Click on the Run Template option within the consultation.
• Click on the Add > Data using Template option outside of a consultation.

Clicking on either of the options above will display the Template Picker screen. 

Search for the Virtual Ward (Ardens) template using the search box provided or via the folder navigation pane. Select the template and click on OK.

 Complete the template using the required fields and ensure you save the information using the Save option on the ribbon.

If using the template via the Run Template option within an open consultation, you will also need to click Save to save the consultation.

Searching for and Viewing Patients on the Virtual Ward List

To extract a list of patients who have been added to the Virtual Ward, navigate to Population Reporting module > Ardens Searches > 1.30 Administration - Misc > Virtual Ward folder.

Select the Report ‘Patient List’ and then select Run option on the ribbon. The search associated with the report will also run.

Then select Yes to the following screen:

This will display the Run Parameters screen, here you can set a date timeframe of your choice, further information on how to do this can be accessed in the following support article.

Click OK once set.

Once run, to view the results of the report, highlight the ‘Patient List’ report, and select View Results option on the ribbon.

The report will show the Patient name, Age, Gender, NHS Number and name of Usual GP.

Removing a Patient from the Virtual Ward List

Open the Virtual Ward Template in the patient record and navigate to the Admission/Discharge page. Use the third section of the page to tick Discharge from virtual ward.

Save the template, using the Save option on the ribbon.

If using the template via the Run Template option within an open consultation, you will also need to click Save to save the consultation.

Re-running the ‘Patient List’ search and report will now exclude this patient from the virtual ward list.

The Care History screen of the patient record will display the following:

If you require any further assistance on the process above, please contact Ardens support on: support-emis@ardens.org.uk