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An occupational therapist (OT) at Good Hope Hospital has used his passion for coding to improve patient care.

Luke Holland, Therapy Clinical Site Coordinator, has built an app from scratch which therapy colleagues can use to order patient equipment from the right place.

Good Hope Hospital lies near the boundaries of multiple council areas, such as Birmingham, Staffordshire, Walsall, Solihull and Warwickshire. 

This means that therapists need to know where a patient lives, and where their GP practice is based, to order equipment from the correct supplier. The equipment could be walking frames, hoists and walking sticks, and each supplier offers something slightly different.

Luke’s web-based app, called the Equipment Locality App (ELA), allows colleagues to input the patient’s postcode and select their GP practice to find out which council areas are involved and therefore which supplier to use. This saves a huge amount of time for therapists, allowing them to focus on clinical care and discharging patients home.

Luke explains: “Each locality area, such as Birmingham, Solihull etc., has their own contracted equipment supplier. The problem arises when a patient and their GP are based in different areas across a boundary; therapists need to understand the agreement in place between the two areas to know which supplier to use. It’s really common for this situation to arise with Good Hope patients. We had a complicated matrix on a big spreadsheet detailing all these boundary agreements and found that out of 250 equipment orders per month, at least 18 were sourced from the wrong supplier. I saw this problem and realised that I had the skills to put a solution in place.”

Although Luke has never had any formal training in coding, his passion allowed him to build the app, using PowerApps part of Microsoft 365, and train therapy colleagues to use it. Since its launch, only two or three orders a month are from the incorrect supplier. 

Luke continues: “Each supplier, contracted by the local council, is different and so a patient living in Solihull might not be able to access the same equipment as a patient in Staffordshire. For example, when it comes to equipment to assist people get out of bed or off a chair, different varieties are available in different areas. The app also allows colleagues to see a catalogue of available equipment from each supplier and order it as part of the process.”

Having worked at Good Hope Hospital for over nine years, Luke has had a range of different occupational therapy roles. Whilst working in the Healthcare of Older People team, he met Becky, also an OT, who is now his wife of six years and mum to their young son, Charlie. With a busy family life, Luke finds coding relaxing and gets great satisfaction from using his skills to solve real-life problems. He is currently creating his own wristwatch using a ‘Charlieplexing’ technique.

He explains: “I get an incredible feeling when I see something which isn’t working, put a solution in place, and get it fixed, especially if it can benefit colleagues and patients. Programming is fun; it’s like playing a musical instrument in that once you’ve learnt the ‘language’, you can be really creative and overcome so many different problems.”

With the Trust currently facing a financial challenge, the app also means that the therapy team at Good Hope Hospital can easily see what equipment they have issued from their small on-site storeroom, making stock control and tracking much easier.

Luke concludes: “I really enjoy my role and being able to use my hobby in addition to my clinical skills is really satisfying. I’m currently building a discharge planning guide so watch this space! I want to keep innovating and making a difference for patients and colleagues.”