Managing phone calls when families are unable to visit patients | from Bradford Royal Infirmary, UK

Already pressurised ward staff were inundated with phone calls from concerned families unable to visit COVID-19 patients.

They created a new, dedicated ‘Relatives Line’, where nurses and admin staff can use medical records and deliver accurate information to families and relay their messages back to patients.

The hospital started with four phone lines and took 1,300 calls in week one. The number of lines is now eight. A dedicated email inbox was also created so people’s personal messages and photographs can be printed and given to patients. Plans to create a website are underway. A local school has even designed a postcard for staff to deliver messages to the wards as well.

Families are comforted by the updates and reassured by being able to send messages to their relatives.

Source:
The BBC news website, April 2020.