How Open Medical has transformed trauma management across an entire region

Lincolnshire is one of England's most sparsely populated counties. Its vast countryside and lack of motorways make it a quintessential rural region—peaceful, picturesque... and challenging for healthcare delivery.

The United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULH) manages two trauma units handling 1,200–1,500 referrals every month from seven virtual fracture clinics spread across nearly 6,000 square kilometres. They were managing these referrals through phone calls, emails, and even faxes, and trauma lists were manually written on whiteboards and paper, with no timestamps, no real-time updates, and no way to track a patient’s journey efficiently. Clinicians spent valuable time chasing information rather than treating patients, while patients were left waiting for care.

To modernise its trauma pathways, ULH implemented Pathpoint eTrauma, BHH & MHH member Open Medical's cloud-based trauma management platform.

Open Medical takes a collaborative, tailored approach to digital transformation, ensuring its solutions address the specific challenges of each healthcare setting. For ULH, this meant:

• Standardising referrals to reduce variability and improve decision-making.
• Enhancing collaboration across multiple sites and teams.
• Providing real-time visibility into patient pathways and across the entire service for more efficient care

The impact was immediate. Mr. Thomas Cheung, Clinical Director for Urgent and Emergency Care at Lincolnshire Community Health Services, highlighted the transformation:

"eTrauma provided consistency across all sites as well as improved accountability and governance of the referral process. This is the cornerstone to developing a beautiful collaboration between Urgent Treatment Centres (UTCs) and the Trauma and Orthopaedics team. The data from eTrauma will be invaluable to streamlining the process and providing evidenced feedback to both the Orthopaedic Consultants and UTC Advanced Clinical Practitioners."

Since implementing Pathpoint eTrauma, ULH has seen incredible improvements in efficiency patient care:

• 99.7% of referrals—over 33,700—processed within 72 hours.
• Average assessment time reduced to just 10.7 hours.
• Real-time tracking enables clinicians to monitor patient statuses at a glance.
• Inpatients receive surgery within a median of 1 day, and outpatients within 3 days.

ULH has transformed its fragmented trauma system into a connected, data-driven network. Patients are treated faster, healthcare teams communicate effectively, and workflows are more efficient than ever. Their triumph demonstrates that with the right digital tools, even complex regional healthcare challenges can be overcome.

Find out how Pathpoint eTrauma can transform your trauma pathways HERE.