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The Institute of Tralee (IT Tralee), whas announced a new €400,000 research programme with Bon Secours Hospital Tralee designed to boost patient care. Pictured at the announcement on in Tralee were: Niamh Prendervillie ,Pat Lombard and Breda Doyle of the Bon Secours Hospital Tralee. Photo By : Domnick Walsh
THE Institute of Tralee (IT Tralee), has announced a new €400,000 research programme.
The programme is one of a number of initiatives marking a collaboration between IT Tralee and Bon Secours Hospital Tralee (BSHT) to develop new activities in teaching, research and education.
Thursday also saw the signing of a formal agreement between IT Tralee and Bon Secours Hospital Tralee to mark this enhanced partnership arrangement.
Dr. Oliver Murphy, President of the IT Tralee at the signing ceremony said; “The IT Tralee and the Bons Secours Hospital Group have an established educational partnership spanning a number of years.
The signing of today’s MOU marks the extension of this partnership beyond education into the area of research and we look forward to the impacts this collaboration will have not just on our respective organisations but on the region in general.”
The Institute has been named as the latest member of Lero, the Irish Software Research Centre. The Lero projects which will run under the programme are designed to optimise patient care at the Tralee Hospital by ensuring the efficient use of resources.
The three-year programme will analyse current procedures for bed management and theatre scheduling and pilot the application of intelligent systems to improve relevant patient pathways. The research is supported by Science Foundation Ireland.
“Efficient resource management, particularly bed management, is a critical issue right across the Irish health sector,” commented Dr. Joseph Walsh, Lero principal investigator at IT Tralee.
“Clever use of technology such as the implementation of systems of this type can result in the efficient use of beds across the health system without major capital spending. Bon Secours aims to use the benefits of this research across its other four hospitals in Ireland.”“Patient satisfaction is of paramount importance to us,” added TJ O’Connor, Hospital Manager, Bon Secours Hospital Tralee.
“We are looking at our processes from the patient’s point of view and working to remove steps in the delivery of our service that the patient would not find valuable.”
He added, “This programme will benefit our hospital and staff as well as our patients by releasing staff time for care.”
Clinical Director of Bon Secours Hospital Tralee, Dr. Helena Moore, commented; “This research programme will help us to sustain excellence in patient care, as well as confidence in a timely, efficient service for our referring GPs.”
Professor Ita Richardson, co-principal Investigator of Lero, the Irish Software Research Centre added, “The programme will help achieve earlier patient admission and ensure multi-disciplinary access to information on bed and surgical resource availability as well as discharge status of a patient.”
