Last review date 03/02/2023

The ‘Virtual Ward’ resources on Ardens are a useful mechanism for reviewing a select group of patients who are at risk of hospital admission or have recently been discharged from hospital.

1. Referring patients to the Virtual Ward

To refer a patient to your Virtual Ward, open the Virtual Ward by going to Auto-Consultations > Ardens General.  Once you have added the ‘Referral to virtual ward’ read code, this will add them to your 'New Referrals to Virtual Ward (in last 1month)' report. You may also wish to add this template to your F12 favourites for quick access.

2. Admitting patients to the Virtual Ward

To review new referrals to the virtual ward, go to Clinical Reporting > Meetings > Virtual Ward > New Referrals to Virtual Ward (in last 1 month). You can then review the patient and if you wish to admit them to the virtual ward, just select the ‘Admission to virtual ward’ at the top of the template.

3. Reviewing patients on the Virtual Ward

To review your patients currently on your Virtual Ward, go to Clinical Reporting > Team | Meetings > Virtual Ward > Currently on Virtual Ward. You can then review each patient one by one during an MDT meeting.

Patients who are currently on the Virtual Ward will also have a hospital building icon under their name. Clicking on this symbol will open the 'Virtual Ward' template.

4. Discharging patients from the Virtual Ward

If your patient no longer needs to be reviewed on the Virtual Ward, add the ‘Discharge from virtual ward’ read code at the top of the template. This will remove the patient from the register.