Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The trust’s journey began with a significant challenge: its license for the legacy system, Datix, was ending.

"It was a very big bang approach," Coral Chiles, Risk Management Systems & Informations Analyst noted. .

Whilst Ideagen Healthcare Guardian is a powerful, out-of-the-box tool, it was the extensive customization options, intuitive dashboarding and ability to turn raw data into actionable insights that attracted the attention of Bedfordshire Hospitals. The decision was driven by several key factors:

Customization and flexibility: The ability to adapt forms, workflows and dashboards was critical. It allowed the trust to build processes that met the specific needs of its users and aligned perfectly with regulatory frameworks like Duty of Candor (DOC) and the new Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF).

Clear data visualization: The team saw the potential to build dashboards with clear infographics, making complex compliance and performance data accessible to frontline staff and managers at a glance.

Strong community and support: The trust valued the close working relationship with the Ideagen Healthcare Guardian team and the support from a strong community of users. Drawing inspiration from peers like King's College Hospital helped accelerate their development and adopt best practices.

Following the go-live in October 2022 with six modules, the team embarked on a systematic rebuild of key processes:

The team simplified language on forms for Duty of Candor (DOC) enhancements and introduced mandatory fields to capture the rationale when DOC was not applied. A ‘governance verified’ step was added, giving the governance team control to ensure compliance was backed by evidence. This was all visualized on a DOC dashboard with filters and infographics for transparent tracking.

In collaboration with service lines, the team were able to customize the risk module to more suitably align with teams’ ways of working. This included a new landing page with clear guidance on the 5x5 risk matrix and an emphasis on defining controls and actions. Summary reports with infographics now provide a clear view of open risks and review schedules.

To streamline preparation for the weekly PSIRF panel, the team built a bespoke ‘PSIRF Search.’ It uses custom filters to pull relevant incidents and pre-built tables to generate the panel workbook, which can be exported directly to Excel.

An ‘Incident Rapid Review’ section was created using the SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) format, giving investigators a clear structure. The team also developed a workflow that automatically emails reporters with investigation outcomes and lessons learned, closing the feedback loop and reducing the administrative burden on managers.

To drive engagement, the team instituted bi-weekly training sessions and launched ‘InPhase 5-minute reads’ - a digestible monthly update on system tips and changes. They also established working groups to embed the system into the Trust's governance fabric.

By strategically customizing their processes within Ideagen Healthcare Guardian, Bedfordshire Hospitals achieved significant and measurable improvements across the organization.

The most dramatic impact was on the weekly PSIRF panel preparation. The bespoke search and automated workbook generation reduced the time required for reporting from two hours to just 30 minutes - a 75% efficiency gain. This automation, along with pre-built reports, gives the small team invaluable time back to focus on strategic improvements.

The new workflows provide robust assurance. The DOC verification step ensures compliance is evidence-based, not just a tick-box exercise. Dashboards allow managers to quickly identify compliance gaps by ward or service line, promoting transparency and local accountability.

The ability to customize modules like Risk Management module, based directly on user feedback, has dramatically improved usability. Clearer forms, automated feedback, and single-view pages like ‘My allocated incidents and actions’ have made the system a powerful tool.

The team's work to make data accessible and provide consistent training has fostered a more open and proactive safety culture. This achievement was formally recognized when the Trust received an Ideagen Healthcare Guardian Cultural Change Award for their efforts at the 2024 User Group. The system also supports cross-site learning, ensuring that lessons are shared effectively between the Bedford and Luton hospitals.

Bedfordshire Hospitals plans to continue its journey of improvement. The immediate focus is on expanding its triangulated dashboards to give ward managers and senior leaders a single, unified view of incidents, risks, and complaints.

The team is also excited to explore how AI can further enhance efficiency. They see clear potential for AI to auto-summarize incident narratives, populate SBAR fields to support investigators, and even draft recommended actions from panel discussions, further freeing up their time for high-value work.