Bradford Announces AI-Powered Hospital Command Center, First of its Kind in Europe

Bradford, UK – 4 October 2018 Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is collaborating with GE Healthcare to build a Command Center – like an air traffic control – at the Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI), UK.  A first of its kind in Europe, the Command Center will transform how care is delivered and organized as the number of patients at the hospital continues to increase. Utilizing artificial intelligence (AI), it will provide a clear, instant, and real-time overview across the 800-bed hospital and help staff make quick and informed decisions on how to best manage patient care.

Up to 20 Trust staff based in the Command Center will monitor a “wall of analytics” that constantly pulls in streams of real-time data from the multiple systems at the hospital.  Advanced algorithms will help staff to anticipate and resolve bottlenecks in care delivery before they occur, recommending actions to enable faster, more responsive patient care and better allocation of resources.  The data will be displayed on multiple high definition screens in the Command Center – as well as on tablets and mobile devices, providing 24-7 support to busy medical teams across the hospital.

The Command Center will be located centrally in a refurbished space at the BRI site.  It will help to reduce unnecessary time spent in hospital after a patient is medically ready to leave, increase the proportion of patients who arrive and are admitted, transferred or discharged from A&E (Emergency Department) within four hours, and help ensure that patients are always treated in the wards best suited to manage their care.

Over 96% of bed capacity at BRI is used regularly and it has 125,000 A&E attendances each year, up by more than 40% over the past decade.  The Command Center program helps meet the vision of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to decrease length of stay, alleviate the need for additional wards and beds – especially during peak winter times – and reduce cancellations for non-emergency surgery.

“Demand for services is growing at Bradford Teaching Hospitals every year” said Professor Clive Kay, Chief Executive of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. “The Command Center will enable us to optimize our use of resources and improve how we move patients around the hospital for treatment and successful discharge. Around 350-400 patients come through our A&E every day, and relieving pressure on our 6,000 staff means they can spend more time delivering care, and less time organizing care.”

“Hospitals are increasingly looking to boost the efficiency of their operations so they can continue to deliver high quality care as patient volume increases.  Command Centers help to orchestrate the delivery of care across the organization, bringing consistency to processes, prioritizing actions, eliminating waste and predicting tomorrow’s pressure points,” said Mark Ebbens, European Command Center Lead at GE Healthcare.

Command Centers have been adopted by several hospitals in North America including The Johns Hopkins Hospital, a major not-for-profit 1100 bed hospital in Baltimore, US, and Humber River Hospital, Toronto, Canada.  Since the Command Center began operating at Johns Hopkins, patients from other hospitals are transferred 60% faster, Emergency Room (A&E) wait times have been cut by 25%, and time spent waiting in the operating theatre for a post-surgical bed decreased by 70%.

“GE Healthcare’s vision is to enable precision health. We are honored to serve the NHS Bradford team as they look to deliver the most effective patient care,” added Jeff Terry, GE Healthcare’s Command Center CEO.

Bradford Teaching Hospitals’ Command Center will open in spring 2019.