Grants – In line with the charity’s strategic aims, the grants programme provides funding and support to projects that strive to achieve great science, excellent patient care, and healthier communities.
Arts – Supporting the arts in healthcare, Imperial Health Charity manage an Arts Council accredited hospital art collection and run an arts engagement programme for patients and NHS staff.
Volunteering – The charity manages volunteering across all five of the Trust’s hospitals, adding value to the work of staff and helping to improve the hospital experience for patients and visitors.
Offer improved connectivity across the Trust for patients, visitors, and staff
Offer a solution that benefits staff, visitors and patients alike.
As a result of improved connectivity, increase the WiFi usage to relay hospital, charity, and engagement information through a tailored user experience portal.
Develop a consensual line of communication between the Charity and interested visitors, volunteers, and patients.
Increase exposure to the charity and encourage involvement and donations.
Give patients, visitors and staff access to free entertainment across the Trust, available on their own devices.
Offer a solution that was entirely supported, 24/7/365.
Offer improved connectivity across the Trust for patients, visitors, and staff
Offer a solution that benefits staff, visitors and patients alike.
As a result of improved connectivity, increase the WiFi usage to relay hospital, charity, and engagement information through a tailored user experience portal.
Develop a consensual line of communication between the Charity and interested visitors, volunteers, and patients.
Increase exposure to the charity and encourage involvement and donations.
Give patients, visitors and staff access to free entertainment across the Trust, available on their own devices.
Offer a solution that was entirely supported, 24/7/365.
“When covid hit, our hospitals had to restrict visiting meaning that patients were very isolated at the hospital. Better WiFi gave patients the chance to stay in touch with loved ones."
Hayley Pannick
Director of Development
Imperial Health Charity
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The connectivity across Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust’s five sites had previously worked on a tiered basis. Free WiFi was offered to guests with a premium, paid package available to purchase. However, the strength of the connection was lacklustre and was standalone connectivity which didn’t have the breadth to encapsulate elevations to patient or clinical engagement.
The need to refresh the WiFi and build a stronger foundation for future growth was exacerbated at the beginning of 2020 when the pandemic began to cause an increase of in-patients in need of a reliable connection and a means for the Trust to engage with them. Working with WiFi SPARK, Imperial Health Charity funded an overhaul that revolutionised the Trust’s offering across its five sites. Originally working on a six-month probationary period, the results of the transformation and the engagement received from patients, visitors and staff saw the Trust and Charity work to make the WiFi SPARK connectivity and engagement solution a permanent fixture.
Regenerating the connectivity and ensuring a strong, secure and reliable network ran throughout the Trust, WiFi SPARK was able to begin building a unique user experience portal (UX) to greet patients, visitors and staff upon their connection to the free NHS WiFi.
Branded in Imperial Health Charity colours and proudly displaying the charity’s logo, the UX works as a welcome gateway for users to get online. Here the charity can rotate information on activities, opportunities or general news across the year as well as actively signposting users to fundraising pages and ways they can get involved.
Offering a new way for the charity to engage with the Trust’s visitors and display updated, information, Imperial Health Charity were able to solidify their brand identity and awareness within the Trust.
To develop this further, visitors have the opportunity to enter their email and check a ‘hear more from us’ box which will enrol them into the charity’s marketing database so that they may receive regular updates long after they’ve left the hospital. This allows the charity to nurture their relationships with visitors and keep them involved in future activities.
In the nearly two years that the system has been running, Imperial Health Charity have seen an average of 1,000 contacts a month enrolled into Marketing activity by opting in to updates via the guest-access WiFi. These are interested visitors who otherwise may have not known about the charity behind the Trust.
Giving access to more than just a WiFi connection, the charity’s funding meant that WiFi SPARK’s patient engagement platform, SPARK® Media, would be accessible to all patients, staff and visitors on their own device. Navigating users to a unique URL, they can explore a range of radio stations, an extensive digital games library, Trust information, a variety of NHS Care links including the NHS Apps Library and further information on the Charity.
A key feature added that alleviated loneliness during covid isolation periods for patients was the SPARK® Media: Unite application. Allowing for free and unlimited video calls to be made and received without the need for an account to be established, ensured that patients and staff could keep in touch with their loved ones whilst visitation was restricted.
The patient engagement platform presents endless opportunities for growth and with SPARK® Media having the ability to be fully charity-branded, the platform can further act to establish the charity’s identity and engage with users.
Round the clock, robust support is provided by WiFi SPARK’s UK-based service desk 24/7/365. This means that the Trust and Charity can prioritise their own tasks and not have to worry about any issues that may arise.
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Working in 2021 with the Charity and Trust, WiFi SPARK facilitated an upgrade of the WiFi and patient engagement platform running across four of King’s College’s sites. Creating an entirely charity-branded UX, all WiFi users are introduced to the charity upon connection and can be kept up to date with the charity’s activities at the touch of a button.
“We’re delighted to have been able to support this project as part of our work to improve patient experience at King’s. We know that patients can struggle with boredom - especially when admitted to hospital for days or weeks at a time, or while waiting for outpatient appointments – and we hope that providing some entertainment to pass the time will help alleviate frustration, whilst also easing some of the pressure on staff. We are thrilled to be collaborating with the Trust on this project and with so much scope for development, look forward to working together to enhance services in the future.” - Iona Joy, Director of Grants, King’s College Hospital Charity
Since the establishment of the new solution in September of 2021, the Trust has seen 55% of all patient engagement platform (PEP) visits interact with an aspect of King’s College Hospital Charity’s content with the most popular link taking users to volunteering information.
The University Hospitals of North Midlands Charity championed a revival of the Trust’s patient engagement offering in 2021. Recognising that patients and visitors favoured using their own devices via the WiFi, UHNM Charity sought a solution that supported this and allowed for content to come to them.
“UHNM Charity is really pleased to be able to support this initiative. It’s massive for us as it means our patients, their relatives, our visitors and staff all have free access to an entertainment platform on any device. As it’s free and easy to use – It’s accessible to everybody. This is a really incredible opportunity for everyone to get involved.’ – Lisa Thompson, Director of Communications and UHNM Charity
So far this year, the Trust has seen just under 100,000 visitors to SPARK® Media, the new patient engagement platform. All of those visitors have seen the Charity’s branding across the site, delivering a previously untapped advertising opportunity. Of all the banner clicks on the platform, 54% were to the charity’s donation page.
The mission of the My Wish Charity is to enhance the wonderful care received by patients across West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. This commitment covers the literal care patients receive as well as the overall patient experience. Rolling out a patient engagement solution that provides a variety of entertainment, links to healthcare services and proudly displaying charity branding, each and every user is able to immerse themselves in content to enrich their stay.
Investing in a number of internet-enabled tablets to loan to patients during their stay at West Suffolk, the My Wish Charity ensured that everyone is able to enjoy the patient entertainment and engagement services on offer, whether they have their own device or not.
Over the last year, 42,000 users have visited the patient engagement platform and of that, 3,041 have interacted with charity content; this could be donating, reading the latest news, or seeing how they could get involved.
To download a copy of the NHS Charities case study as a PDF, simply click the link below.
