Two female nurses having a virtual conversation through Microsoft Teams
Read Time, 5 min.

“There have been many heroic actions by our staff but we’re not heroes for what we’ve done – I’m just glad we could do our bit to help.”

Paul Duffy, Co-Director of IT and Telecommunications at Belfast Trust, is talking about the monumental impact COVID-19 has had on the healthcare sector and how virtual consultations became a much-needed lifeline.

“Everyone across healthcare faces the same challenges, and this period has made things more difficult and dangerous than ever,” says Duffy. “We knew COVID-19 was coming since last January. We thought as long as we could do our jobs two meters apart, we could still put patients first – that was the culture of our organization at the time.

“But the minute lockdown started in March last year there were no physical meetings. The health and safety of everyone became our top priority, so almost overnight we needed a new solution. A way to still get together and make decisions, and if anything, make them faster than we’ve ever had to before.

“For us, that was Microsoft Teams.”

Responding to a global crisis

Belfast Trust is the largest integrated health and social care trust in the United Kingdom, employing 23,000 people who help treat over 340,000 patients across more than 100 hospital and facilities in Northern Ireland.

Back in 2018, Belfast Trust began a cloud-first digital transformation, implementing Microsoft 365 across the organization and trialing new innovative ways of working, like using Microsoft Teams for virtual consultations. With nearly 5,000 clinics to align to this new way of working and a variety of security and data regulations to meet, the project team had to move gradually – planning a significant multi-year change management and adoption program before moving ahead.

Then COVID-19 hit, and timings went out the window.

“Fortunately, the hard work had already been done before COVID-19, so we were ready to implement Teams when the time came,” says Duffy.

“The fact that it was cloud based made it a real winner – an instant way to support meetings from home and make sure important decisions weren’t delayed. And with integration into other Microsoft 365 tools, we could easily manage a range of devices remotely and always align with our own governance and security regulations.

“With everyone already starting to work from home we didn’t have time for the roll-out we planned, so our first job was making sure Teams was the only platform everyone was using across Belfast Trust.”

A digital roll-out for remote working

By March 2020, Belfast Trust had implemented Microsoft 365 across the organization and already had 3,000 people using Microsoft Teams regularly without needing a push from IT.

“Everyone had the hardware and just needed training, although month after month more people were discovering the benefits of Teams by themselves,” explains Keren Moleon, Systems Specialist at Belfast Trust.

“We had planned physical workshops to launch Teams with help from Microsoft and our partner PA Consulting. But once we heard about COVID-19, we quickly adapted this into a digital plan and online training that focused more on remote working.”

Staff across Belfast Trust used a specially-created Power App to choose relevant training sessions and join them through Microsoft Teams, helping show not only how team meetings could continue online, but also how live events such as patient support groups could be adapted during the lockdown.

“By May we had it all delivered, helping prepare us for the peak period over the summer,” says Moleon. “And overnight people didn’t need IT’s help anymore – and were instead asking us for more features.

“Even our executive team love it, and are now planning to run town hall events with our Chief Exec and Senior Leaders on Teams where they can take questions from any of our 23,000 staff – something that we could never facilitate at a live physical event.”

Continuing patient care from a distance

With strict social distancing rules now in place, Belfast Trust needed to help support patients remotely and continue providing face-to-face care in a secure way. “We were already offering telephone consultations before COVID-19, but overnight we also launched our virtual video consultations through Teams,” says Moleon.

“At the time it was a manual process to collect patient data and ensure data security, but it allowed us to quickly support our highly vulnerable patient groups when the lockdown started.”

Belfast Trust worked with Microsoft Digital Advisory Services, Microsoft Customer Success Unit and PA Consulting to evolve this into a more scalable solution that is integrated through the trust’s Microsoft 365 platform. This included automations built through the Microsoft Teams API to collect patient information and record consultations, with all data securely stored in the hospitals Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system.

“We’ve already had success using this new system within our pediatric neurosurgery, hepatology liver transplant, adult neurology and thoracic sleep medicine clinic – and now we’re in the process of rolling it out across the rest of our organization,” adds Moleon.

“Many of our patients actually prefer these virtual consultations as they can stay where they are. For us, knowing we’re delivering a service that is wrapped in a Microsoft security blanket will help us make Teams a more permanent part of our outpatients process in the future.”

Changing patient healthcare forever

With COVID-19 putting digital dependence at front and center of the healthcare sector, organizations like Belfast Trust are continuing to embrace technology and find new ways to help and treat patients. It’s a shift that has changed the people as well as the trust and is something Duffy doesn’t think will stop there.

“It’s become as normal as using the phone system and created different levels of culture within the organization that came from practicalities, not IT,” says Duffy. “Now that we’ve embraced digital as far as communication and decision making is concerned, there’s no going back.”

“It’s like that old World War poster, ‘daddy, what did you do in the war?’ – I want our team to feel very proud of what we did to contribute to healthcare during this period. We’re not directly saving lives like people on the frontline, but take away Microsoft Teams, and our response as an organization would have been very different.”

Teams for Healthcare Adoption Guide

Learn more about how Teams is transforming the way hospitals can interact and communicate.

Discover more related articles per industry:

Education

  • a person sitting at a table using a laptop computer

    Reimagining education: From remote to hybrid learning

    The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a torrent of individual and small-group responses as to how education could be transformed. We have found a groundswell of interest in the question, “How best to take advantage of the new opportunities arising from the disruption?” What people desperately need are opportunities to team up and find pathways of […]

  • a woman using a laptop

    Find out how to deliver enhanced education through ‘blended learning’

    Since the COVID-19 outbreak, our education customers have done amazing things to keep students engaged while learning from home. From eLearning innovations, to lifting the spirits with photo and cooking challenges – teachers and students have shown extraordinary resilience during a difficult time. Schools and universities have witnessed the exceptional value that online learning can […]

Government

  • a man and two women standing in front of a brick building

    Ajuntament de Lleida: transforming the public sector with a modern, virtual workplace

    “At Ajuntament de Lleida, we think differently. We embrace new technology. And when we see that it could add real value to the work we do, we find a way to make it happen.” Carles GinéSabaté, Systems Implementation Planning Manager at Ajuntament de Lleida, is reflecting on his organization’s open-armed approach to digital transformation and […]

  • Iceland runs on Trust

    How the cloud helped a small nation realise big ambitions

    In December 2015, the Icelandic government kicked off a digital infrastructure review. With more than 100 different suppliers managed by over 100 IT managers in each public institution, the brief was clear; to simplify operations and streamline IT for over 20,000 users. The solution: Fast forward two and a half years, and a decision was […]

Healthcare

  • Healthcare professionals operating on a patient

    Maasstad Hospital: Working as one medical team during a crisis

    In times of crisis, an organization looks to its leadership for guidance. As COVID-19 spread through Europe in early 2020, Maasstad Ziekenhuis Hospital CEO Peter Langenbach had planned to lead his hospital’s crisis response as he would any other – being present and visible, leadership traits instilled in him during his time in the Dutch […]

  • a person sitting in front of a laptop computer

    The ‘Big Bang’ approach to digital transformation – and how to make it work

    These days there’s no such thing as ‘business as usual’. Change and disruption are the new normal. Just think of the changes affecting your organization right now, with new technology and techniques driving new attitudes and expectations from employees and customers alike. Everything is changing. And the one thing all those changes have in common […]

Manufacturing

  • Etex

    Etex uses modern tools to unite its business and better focus on customers

    When it comes to construction, all components must come together in a timely manner in order to produce the optimum product. While Etex, a Belgian building solution manufacturing company, helps make this a reality on a day-to-day basis, it wanted to find a way to enhance productivity and collaboration internally. With locations across more than […]

  • a woman smiling for the camera

    Etex Group: Future-proofing employees to work anywhere across the world

    When COVID-19 spread across Europe in early 2020, businesses entered a new digitally-dependent age. Social distancing measures had asked offices of all shapes and sizes to close their doors, sparking organizations to quickly find other virtual ways for colleagues to meet and collaborate remotely. But for Belgium building material specialist Etex, this was a step they were ready for – having already implemented a cloud-based infrastructure and collaboration tools […]

Retail

  • Picture from the back of a person attending a Teams meeting with 2 colleagues, discussing about a furniture fabric.

    Zuiver: Supporting both business and culture through technology

    “Since moving to the cloud, there are no limitations anymore. And I’m certain without this technology, we would not have seen the growth we have today.” Jaap Landsaat, CFO and Head of IT at Dutch furniture designer Zuiver, is talking about the profound impact technology has had on the business he co-founded more than 20 years ago. “Back then, we had 100 orders a week […]

  • GDPR and Retail: Four GDPR requirements and how Microsoft can help

    GDPR and Retail: Four GDPR requirements and how Microsoft can help

    Learn how we can help you meet GDPR requirements with solutions available today: Assessing your current risk profile “How do I understand where I am already compliant and where I need to focus next?” This is one of the most common questions from retailers in regard to the GDPR. It’s also one of the hardest to […]

Discover more related articles per dossier:

Customer Stories

  • Nurse and patient

    MOB: increasing healthcare workers’ time with their patients using cloud technology

    “Time is the most valuable currency in healthcare. That’s what this technology gives us: more time with our patients.” Fettah Erdal, Senior Administrator at Dutch healthcare provider MOB is talking about the impact that cloud-based technology is having on his organization’s ability to deliver more patient-centred healthcare. “All of our care workers are in the […]

Digital Transformation

  • a person sitting in front of a laptop computer

    The ‘Big Bang’ approach to digital transformation – and how to make it work

    These days there’s no such thing as ‘business as usual’. Change and disruption are the new normal. Just think of the changes affecting your organization right now, with new technology and techniques driving new attitudes and expectations from employees and customers alike. Everything is changing. And the one thing all those changes have in common […]

Security & Privacy

  • HeadBrands is ready for the future with Microsoft 365 Business

    HeadBrands is ready for the future with Microsoft 365 Business

    Since its creation in 2010, HeadBrands has continued to grow, rapidly becoming the leading retailer of hairdressing products in Scandinavia. HeadBrands needed a modern IT solution to increase its business productivity and improve collaboration, both within the company and externally. Its response to this challenge was to replace most of its previous services with Microsoft […]

Tips

  • A woman holding a white mug

    Working from home. What I’ve learned as an early adopter.

    I guess you could call me an ‘early adopter’ of remote work. About 15 years ago, I was responsible for mobility and convergence at a large telecoms company when those concepts were in their infancy. So, I decided I’d try to practice what I’d be preaching all day, and insisted on working remotely as often […]