North West Ambulance Service boosts workplace efficiency with BRAVIA and TEOS
Cloud-hosted ‘digital wallboards’ help ambulance staff access and share live information and crucial messages.
- Ambulance service struggled with slow, inefficient paper-based noticeboards and whiteboards to share critical information between staff
- TEOS cloud-hosted workplace management solution
- 250x BRAVIA 4K professional displays
- 90x TEOS interactive tablets
- Quick, unambiguous, up-to-date access to key information
- Communications can be shared with other ambulance stations
Through working with Sony to implement the TEOS platform, we have been able to realise a number of benefits and improve the efficiency, safety and wellbeing of our most important asset - our staff.
Timothy Miles
Operations Manager
Serving seven million people
Employing over 6,000 staff, North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) serves more than seven million people in the communities of Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire and Glossop (Derbyshire). One of ten NHS ambulance trusts providing emergency medical services across England, NWAS receives approximately 1.3 million 999 calls and responds to over a million emergency incidents each year.
In a major IT overhaul across 109 ambulance stations, NWAS has been working with Sony and solutions provider Universal AV to support staff with ‘digital wallboards’, based on Sony’s TEOS workplace management solution and bright, reliable BRAVIA 4K professional displays.
Eliminating paper-based information sharing
NWAS ambulance stations were previously dependent on inefficient and frequently disorganised paper-based noticeboards and whiteboards to communicate everything from vehicle status and location to patient safety plans, hospital arrrivals and local road closures. The limitations of this out-of-date system became especially apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic, when busy ambulance services were stretched to their limit.
“The field we operate in leaves no margin for errors: as a critical service to the public we have to be able to respond accurately and in a timely manner” says John Martland, Head of IT Support Services for NWAS. “While it wasn’t inhibiting us from doing our job, the set-up at our stations wasn’t supporting staff in the best way possible. I turned to Sony because I’d seen how well their BRAVIA and TEOS ecosystem had worked in other organisations. We went forward with this digitalisation project with Universal AV, knowing that the solutions on offer would revolutionise the experience for our employees. This project is about ensuring our systems work smarter to support staff who in turn support the public in their time of need.”
Smart solution helps ambulance staff
Working with Sony and Universal AV, NWAS has replaced inefficient and error-prone written notices with smart interactive ‘digital wallboards’ that have already been rolled out across more than 25 sites. Sony has provided a total of 250 BRAVIA 4K professional displays – ranging in size from 43” to 65” – plus 90 TEOS interactive tablets. Several screens are touch-enabled with the addition of interactive overlays that allow staff to browse bulletins and other information. Information shown on screens is orchestrated by TEOS, Sony’s workplace management solution that can be hosted either on-premises or in the cloud.
With all devices linked to the ‘brain’ of Sony’s TEOS Manage solution, it’s easy for employees to simply walk up to an interactive screen in the station and perform a range of tasks. Employees can see at a glance how long a vehicle has been at the station and whether it is out of service due to damage incurred on the previous job, any equipment that needs replacing and if a vehicle requires specialist cleaning or maintenance before re-deployment. Ambulance bays equipped with IoT sensors also allow the system to identify when a particular bay is occupied. Under the management of TEOS, messages can also be ‘pushed’ through to be displayed at other stations, replacing the need for staff to phone instructions to colleagues at another location. As well as providing staff with smart information to help them follow correct processes and protocols, the paper-free system also automates more efficient reporting.
Transforming workflow efficiency
In the event of a major incident, TEOS now enables team members to access a complete view of all hospitals in the local area, their capacity and the time based on current traffic conditions it would take to divert the ambulance there. This ensures the team can send resources to the most appropriate hospital, and can work with the police, fire, and mountain rescue teams to distribute this information too.
The new system is also better equipped for supporting administration of employees’ holidays and self-certification sick days, enabling remote capabilities that allow staff to simply input an email address or scan their ID card to receive an automated form which, once filled out, is then communicated back to those that require this information. As a further bonus, the new system ensures that each station can work as a smart building, with optimised temperature controls, lighting and other eco management features to ensure maximum efficiency and sustainability.
“In such a modern and connected world, we wanted to be pioneers in a typically traditional and legacy sector,” states John Martland. “NWAS is now able to operate in a truly modern, seamless, and automated way, in line with other sectors. The revolution of this deployment has not only been impactful within the walls of our ambulance stations, but extends across the network of hospitals, police stations, fire stations and mountain rescue teams.”
Improving response times
“Previously when I arrived at the station I would need to sign in on a paper form, check in the garage what vehicle was available, see whether the keys were in the cabinet, check the service status of the vehicle on the whiteboard, check which equipment needed servicing and finally check whether I’d missed any important updates or messages” says Timothy Miles, Operations Manager. “These were all located in different parts of the station and on different notice boards, which took well over ten minutes to complete. Within the ambulance service, reducing as much wasted time as possible and increasing our availability to respond to people in need is of paramount importance. With the new notice boards from Sony, I can sign in on the board at the start of my shift using my ID card and at a glance, I can see all of the information I need within 30 seconds. If there’s anything important that I don’t have time to read in full, I can send it electronically from the wallboard to my iPad and read it on the go.”
Ensuring crucial information is always available
“Through working with Sony to implement the TEOS platform, we have been able to realise a number of benefits and improve the efficiency, safety and wellbeing of our most important asset – our staff” commnts Matt Dugdale, Head of Clinical and Digital Innovation at NWAS. “Our crews work extremely hard, under immense pressure and as a service, it’s important that we make the start of the shift as efficient as possible in order to maximise the availability of our responding crews to an emergency. Likewise, when are crews are able to spend time on station, it’s important that we improve their wellbeing and safety whilst on station. Staff were able to co-design and contribute to the interface design of the wallboards, working directly with the Sony team, to ensure that the most important information was always available. Through this process staff have the ability to manage everything through the wallboards, from writing a quick note to their colleagues, to setting optimal heating controls for the station.”
