Local care providers use digital toolkit to monitor vital signs and prevent health deterioration

A remote monitoring toolkit has demonstrated potential for empowering care staff to make data-led healthcare decisions about the people they care for.

The Whzan Blue Box contains everything needed to enable staff to measure vital signs such as heart rate, blood oxygen levels, temperature and blood pressure.  It also works out the National Early Warning Score (NEWS2) which is used to see if someone who is already ill is becoming worse.  Clinical colleagues can be alerted to early signs of deterioration – speeding up diagnosis and care to potentially avoid hospital admissions.

The Digitising Social Care programme at Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes (BLMK) Integrated Care System had first introduced Whzan to care homes in the area in 2021.  NHS England’s Digital Transformation fund enabled the project to be scaled up, with a further 53 kits issued to care homes and home care providers in 2024/25, supporting approximately 1,800 residents.

While the 12-month scale up project was unable to fully demonstrate the planned benefits and impacts due to the lack of robust data as a result of inconsistent usage within the smaller scale-up cohort, the findings from anecdotal and survey feedback suggest good potential:

• The number of vital signs readings and NEWS2 score recordings increased across the cohort during the project.
• Anecdotal feedback suggests positive impacts including empowering staff to make data-driven decisions and to intervene early, supporting residents’ quality of life, and prevention of deteriorating health.
• The survey respondents felt confident using Whzan, and almost half felt that the toolkit reduced carers’ administration time.

Examples of the feedback received include:

• APT Home Care in Luton shared how Whzan prompted carers to seek immediate medical attention, which ensured timely and potentially life-saving support for someone in their care.  “Although vital signs were within normal range, her Whzan score was elevated due to her acute confusion.  The supervisor then noticed that she had developed slurred speech, which raised further concerns.  Staff immediately contacted NHS 111 who swiftly dispatched an ambulance.”
• Dawn McGuire, registered manager at Chase House residential nursing home in Bedfordshire, said: “The technology has made such a positive difference. Our residents are safer and healthier, and our staff are happier because they can now give more time to the residents, while also knowing the care they can give is so much better.”

When added to the earlier rollout of Whzan, a total of 172 kits have been issued to 123 care locations across the local area.  The BLMK Digitising Social Care team will continue to support providers who have the kits until March 2026 and ensure they have options to continue with their subscription beyond the life of the project.

To find out more about the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Digitising Social Care programme, visit https://blmkhealthandcarepartnership.org/about/our-priorities/data-and-digital/digitising-social-care-disc-programme or contact the team on blmkicb.digital.socialcare@nhs.net.