Improving patient care

Staying ahead of the game

We constantly strive to find and implement new and innovative ways of improving the quality and safety of care for patients.

 

Modernisation

The newly created post of head of modernisation, leading a modernisation team, was introduced this year. A modernisation board is also now in place to drive and support quality improvement initiatives throughout the Trust in areas as diverse as maximizing theatre capacity, optimising length of stay and reviewing single sex patient accommodation. Patients now experience the benefits of closer working between the patient safety and modernisation teams. The advantages of such joined-up activity will be seen in areas such as a shorter length of stay and faster implementation of patient safety interventions, such as reducing wound infections.

Some of the highlights of the past year include:

The Productive Ward

This initiative focuses on improving ward processes and the ward environment to give nurses and therapists more time to spend on patient care, thereby improving safety and efficiency. Several wards are now working in new ways to reduce waste and delay.

18 week wait target met early

Thanks to the hard work of many staff reviewing and changing processes and patient pathways, we met the 18 week referral to treatment target two months early in October 2008 (see previous section).

Maximising theatre capacity

The operating theatre team has been working to improve daily communication and reduce cancellations.

Single sex patient accommodation

An action plan has been developed to reduce the number of times patients are accommodated in ward bays shared by men and women, or use shared washing facilities. This has involved measuring baseline information and improving signage and screens for ward areas.

Taking Care 24:7

This is a new approach to providing high quality care both at night and during the day. It focuses on delivering good patient care while also ensuring doctors work appropriate hours. Staff work in a more multidisciplinary, team-based way to care for patients. Models of care are being developed which apply this approach to all our services.