Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust is an integrated provider of hospital, community, primary and social care services. Its team of approximately 7,500 staff provide local services to the City of Salford and specialist services to Greater Manchester and beyond, for example, intestinal failure, trauma services and neurosciences. Salford Royal is the lead provider for the Integrated Care Organisation and is also one of 16 Global Digital Exemplar sites.
Project Background
The spread of COVID-19 in countries around the world in 2020 showed just how vulnerable healthcare systems can be. The immediate response from government officials, medical professionals and the scientific community was to make public health recommendations and safety measures to minimise the spread of the virus. However, this left healthcare facilities overwhelmed due to the number of patients and staff shortages. This had a major impact on patient and staff safety, as well as their confidence when receiving and delivering healthcare in what is supposed to be a carefully protected environment.
With a team of 7,500 staff and over 1.2 million outpatient appointments and 93,000 inpatient admissions per year, Salford Royal Hospital decided that an automated and intelligent system would help it manage the pandemic better. It wanted a solution that would automatically check people’s temperature and detect those with a fever at the entrance of the hospital, without needing to place much-needed medical resource at this location. Additionally, as the safety of all relied on social distancing, the hospital also wanted to better understand footfall and occupancy data.
Project Approach
After investigating numerous solutions, Salford Royal decided on Interaction Care by Barcelona-based retail analytics company Beabloo. Interaction Care acts as an integrated system using digital signage, thermal cameras, people counting sensors, and a content management system, to coordinate messages that appear on the screens. This collection of technologies measures different KPIs that detect interactions in realtime both inside and outside the physical space, whilst complying with established data privacy standards. Outside the premises, a screen can allow entry based on the occupancy density and the flow of people in and out of the hospital. It can also measure the body temperature of anyone who enters, and prioritise entry for people in at-risk groups. Inside the space, Interaction Care identifies high-risk zones and displays messages to remind people of security measures and the social distancing requirement on screens. It also provides interaction data to managers so they can see which zones receive the most traffic to focus sanitation efforts on those areas.
The hospital implemented three components of Beabloo’s Interaction Care solution at their Digital Innovation Center, a testbed for new digital initiatives and technology to assess emerging models of care. These components were Occupancy Control, Thermal Sensing and Mask Detection, explored further on the tabs below.
Occupancy Control
Sensors were installed above the entrance to the Digital Innovation Centre with a view to automatically manage occupancy by monitoring the number of people entering and leaving. The sensors connected to Beabloo’s software, provided an overview of the total number of people inside the demo room, with a large 50in totem display displaying live occupancy numbers and real-time updates (below, left). The software tracked occupancy over time (below centre & right), and depending on the number of people inside, allows people to enter or urges them to wait.
Thermal Sensing
Thermal cameras installed above the entrance to the Digital Innovation Centre combined with Beabloo software to attempt to perform fast, accurate, and automatic temperature checks on people entering the demo room. If the system detects a person with an elevated temperature, it triggers an alert instantly, displayed on one of the screens placed inside the demo room.
Mask Detection
A camera mounted by the Digital Innovation Centre checks whether or not people entering are wearing face masks in real time. Should the system detect someone not wearing a mask, it displays content about mandatory mask usage within the hospital, on one of the screens inside the demo room.
If these trials proved the system was successful at quickly identifying numbers of people, those with fever or lack of face mask and deliver accurate occupancy data, the Trust would look to scale the system up to the entrance area.
Project Results
The results of the test phase in the Digital Innovation Centre were presented to the executive board and due to their positive impact it was decided to proceed to full roll-out to the hospital entrance without any further delay. For the occupant control element, sensors installed at the hospital successfully collected real-time occupancy data and delivered it to hospital staff on dashboards. These valuable insights on occupancy rates proved vital in maintaining social distancing.
For the thermal sensing element, an alert appears on the 50in screen mounted at the hospital entrance asking the person to wait for assistance from hospital staff. Simultaneously, the system sends an alert to hospital staff so they can react quickly and check the person for other possible symptoms of the virus. Identifying infected people as quickly as possible means less exposure and a safer environment for all. The video detection of face masks also appears on this screen, enabling fast identification and automatic reaction to mask usage violations maximising everyone’s safety. Additionally, a safety content element was also deployed involving signage screens reiterating procedures such as social distancing, hand-washing and mask wearing measures.
The Scan Partnership
Royal Salford NHS Trust approached Scan as an end-to-end provider of digital signage solutions, having researched the Beabloo Interaction care solution. As the leading UK Beabloo solution provider, the Scan team worked with mangers at the Trust to design and deploy a bespoke network of signage screens, cameras and sensors, alongside a content management platform powered by a small form factor custom PC designed and built by Scan’s in-house 3XS Systems division.
Project Wins
Compliance with COVID-19 safety regulations, controlling occupancy and distancing
Maintaining control over infection levels by rapid identification of potential COVID positive patients
Increased productivity in medical areas of the hospital due to the advanced system automation
Keith Bentham
Digital Program Manager, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust
"We set a real challenge in terms of very aggressive time scales driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and that challenge has been more than met. The solution itself has been excellent and we can see consistent results day on day."
Jaume Portell
CEO and co-founder of Beabloo
"Our main motivation when designing this new solution was to help our clients protect their customers and employees during this unprecedented situation. We present Interaction Care as an integrated solution that uses tried-and-tested technologies to minimise the risk of contagion in any public space."
Speak to an expert
You’ve seen how Scan has helped Royal Salford Hospital in automating safety and occupancy procedures. Contact our expert Digital Signage team to discuss any requirements or projects you have.
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