Be the Change

‘Everyone is an Improver’

The second annual ASPH Quality Improvement event was held on 28^th June 2017 and we were delighted to be joined by over 140 colleagues from across the Trust, Board members and Governors, our system partners, NHS Improvement and others.

The whole day was evidence that we have made huge progress in the last year.  Not only in making improvements in patient experience and patient safety, but in working together and supporting each other in our culture of curiosity and creativity.

You can see a summary of the day in video below:

The all-day event brought together staff to celebrate the great QI work that has been undertaken in the Trust in the last year; to meet and hear from some of the teams who have been working on QI projects, and to learn from others in an informal environment.

The theme for the day was ‘Everyone is an improver’ which is a concept that runs through our quality improvement (QI) strategy, and we heard from a variety of colleagues, clinical and non-clinical, from all levels of the organisation, about the amazing work they are doing.

We received video messages from a number of friends who couldn’t be with us in person, including Jim Mackey, Chief Executive of NHS Improvement – who wanted to send a personal message of support for our QI work (you can watch the video below)

As part of our day, we welcomed two keynote speakers.  The first was Dr John Harden, National Clinical Lead for Quality and Safety at the Scottish Government, who talked to us about the work of the national programme for healthcare quality and improvement in Scotland.  John shared some inspiring examples of improvements in patient safety that have been made in Scotland through the application of QI methodology across the whole health sector.

Then in the afternoon, Professor Tom Downes, Consultant Geriatrician and Honorary Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, spoke to us about his personal journey and experiences.  In particular Tom described how the application and spread of QI in Sheffield has led to the transformation of the care of frail older patients in the city, and how small tests of change have led to innovative changes over many years.  His talk was emotional and inspiring but also very supportive of the ASPH approach to QI.

It was great to see so much evidence of the building will and capability for quality improvement in our organisation, and some great work being done by our teams. Throughout the day we heard from a number of ASPH teams who have led improvement work over the last year, working with their teams to improve patient experience and patient safety:

• Gill O’Shea and Karina Wills from Swift ward talked about their work to reduce pressure ulcers
• Dr Sri and Kate Baskerville shared the collaborative work between the Emergency Department and Radiology to improve communication for patient safety
• Jo Wilding-Hillcoat, Infant Feeding Midwife talked about ‘Project Joey’- an exciting new project to promote uninterrupted skin-to-skin time for new born babies
• Dr Clare Smith presented the work of her team and others to improve end of life care at ASPH
• Dr Clarence Chikusu shared the ‘Red to Green’ project underway on Cherry Ward which is bringing the team together to reduce delays for patients
• Izabela Wakula and Rebecca Martin presented their innovative work to improving patient experience through the trialling of a Paediatric Pre-assessment clinic
• Lynn Joyce and Sonia Ellis from the Cardiology Clinical Office Team shared their work to improve patient admin pathways for patient safety.

A big well done and thank you to everyone who presented and to those who participated in a number of fun and inspiring breakout sessions, which generated some great conversations.

We also had a great response to our QI poster competition from our junior doctors and other members of team ASPH, with more posters submitted than ever before.

First place went to Nicola Wilks, Dee Bousfield and Gill O’Shea for their ROADMAP Risk Feeding protocol project.

Click the image to the right to see the winning poster!

Lucy Holloway, F1 Doctor was second with her project to improve end of life care medications  and Sue Harris and Bibiana Baumgart from the Specialist Tissue Viability team were third with their poster for reducing heel pressure ulcers.

Thanks to everyone who came to the event and we look forward to seeing you for ASPH QI 2018!