Cinos and Refero: A Complete Turnkey solution for the NHS and Healthcare

Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) provides community health, mental health and learning disability services to approximately 2.5 million people throughout Bedfordshire, Essex, Suffolk and Luton.

Voice and telephony services play a crucial part in the day-to-day operations at EPUT. With 5,000 members of staff working across 200 sites, the Trust wanted to consolidate and modernise its existing legacy telephony estate.

The project involved replacing traditional ISDN and BT Featurenet lines in favour of new Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) service provisions. Cinos installed 1,500 Cisco handsets, set up connectivity services, provision of SIP channels and delivery of professional services.

This has enabled EPUT to consolidate and centrally manage connectivity, reducing the number of dedicated telephone lines and enabling significant cost savings. It has also given them the additional resilience to ensure constant connectivity in the event of an outage and carry out upgrades with minimal impact to end-users.

St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (STHK) provides a full range of acute healthcare services across three sites at Whiston, St Helens and Newton hospitals.

To deliver upon their vision of providing ‘5-star patient care’ the Trust initially identified two key areas where online video consultation would improve the patient experience and use clinical time more efficiently.

Refero was trialled in the Trust’s cancer drains outreach and stroke review services for two years. The results were outstanding. Refero achieved a statistical 60% (25% to 10%) reduction in did not attends for appointments within the six-month Stroke Review Service. In the drains outreach service, Refero allowed nurses to conduct video-based consultations rather than visiting patients in their own home. In some cases, this has enabled operational efficiency of up to four hours per nurse per day, and a significant reduction in travel expenses for both nurses and patients.

As a result of a hugely successful trial, STHK have extended their use of Refero for patients attending its Medicine for Older People Frailty Service; Speech and Language Therapy Service; Burns & Plastics, Breast Reconstruction Service and Gastroenterology and Liver Surveillance Service. It also plans to extend the programme beyond into the community with provision for mental health services in the future.

In 2020, after a successful bid under the Network Services 2 framework agreement, Cinos were commissioned to design and install a video conferencing solution within York Hospital’s new Endoscopy Unit. The project would act as a blueprint for the Trust’s ongoing MDT Meeting Programme.

MDT meetings are common across the NHS to facilitate the discussion of patient conditions and subsequent treatments. Different clinical teams are represented at these meetings, both in-person and via video conferencing, discussing several sources of patient information simultaneously.

The Cisco Webex Room system sits at the heart of the MDT solution, offering 4K video, content sharing and handling all source switching within the room. Paired with a Cisco control panel, clinicians have complete control of all audio-visual functions, from inviting other medical professionals into the call to displaying simultaneous sources of patient information.

Four Samsung UHD, narrow bezel displays were installed in the space, two at the front of the room and a further two repeater screens on the side walls. Optimum audio coverage was achieved courtesy of a Sennheiser beamforming ceiling microphone array with a 60 square metre audio pickup, reinforced with four Extron ceiling speakers.

The project was completed to scope, within budget and ahead of schedule. Following this successful delivery, Cinos have upgraded 3 more MDT meeting spaces during the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, a further 3 spaces will be upgraded throughout 2021.