Abstract Aims To evaluate the safety and efficacy of a virtual ward (VW) in managing surgical patients. Increasing numbers of patients admitted with surgical pathology who require therapy such as antibiotics or monitoring. Methods All patients under the care of general surgery who were referred to VW between January 2023 and October 2024 were included. We also looked into patient feedback from their time spent under the care of VW with the use of patient feedback. Results 81% of patients were referred to the VW for monitoring. Most instances were for vital sign monitoring or laboratory trends. On average these patients required care under VW for 8 days. 90.7% of patients did not require any re-admissions whilst under VW. 93% of patients did not require re-admission at 30 days following discharge from VW. 21 patients (9.2%) were re-admitted either during their time on BW. 6 (2.7%) of these were planned admissions. There were 2 mortalities (0.9%) following discharge from VW within 30 days. Of the 55 patients who participated in the qualitative part of the study, 98% of the patients felt they were safe under the care of the virtual ward. 96% of patients said they felt they were adequately monitored. 98% of patients preferred being at home under VW compared to spending additional days in hospital. Conclusions Most patients had a reduction in their inflammatory laboratory results. The rates of adverse outcomes were low. Virtual ward appears to be a safe model for managing surgical patients at home.
Puvanachandra et al. (Fri,) studied this question.