Staff are at the heart of the South Eastern Trust and are integral to delivering high quality, safe care to patients and service users.
The Trust really values the contribution that staff make to improve services, so in order to show its appreciation, it has created a number of Quality Improvement and Innovation Centres (QIIC) that provide a venue for staff to interact and learn the skills to develop and implement quality improvement projects. These centres promote a culture of listening and learning, while providing the training and tools to channel their ideas into projects and initiatives that will improve patient care and form a community of thinkers and innovators for the future.
In recognition of this innovative work, the Trust recently held ‘Quality 4 All’ awards to showcase these forward thinking staff and their projects. The awards focused on the pillars of the ‘Trusts Quality 4 All’ strategy; Safety, Quality and Experience of Care, Our People, Improving Value for Our Population and Health and Wellbeing of the Population.
The winners were announced at a Quality Celebration Event that took place on Friday 11 November 2022 in Ards Hospital.
· Encompass Lead Pharmacist, Erika Hughes won the Safety, Quality & Experience category for her MacMillan Breast Clinic Transformation Project. The project set out to achieve 80% of patients attending for chemotherapy treatment to be treated within 30 minutes of their scheduled appointment time to improve patient experience. The clinic’s admin processes were revised and the outcomes have shown that patients have been treated faster which has contributed to a better clinical experience.
· A Recruitment and Retention in the Downe Hospital Wards project was the winner in the ‘Our People’ Category. Project leads Cathy Curran and Caroline Smith aimed to improve the recruitment and retention of staff into the hospital by 80% with a deadline of Autumn 2022, the project also sought to improve the student experience on the in-patient wards. A number of interventions were put in place alongside colleagues from corporate teams to focus on recruitment, student induction packs, social media engagement, staff engagement sessions, to name a few. The great outcome from this project is that there are currently no nursing vacancies and staff feedback indicates a positive workplace culture.
· Assistant Director for Elderly Services, Jo Burns, won the ‘Improving Value for our Population category, with her innovative Enhancing Capacity in Domiciliary Care project. This project aimed to introduce a digitalisation system by May 2022 and to reform the independent sector sourcing model by September 2022. The introduction of software and technology by Careline Live has had a positive impact across all aspects of the service, including staff communication & engagement, streamlining processes and improved service user experience. Following its implementation, the Trust has calculated that having the system has improved efficiency and through monitoring with, 1,001 hours of additional care secured from the existing workforce. This would equate to approx. £35,000 per week in terms of the cost of that care and more significantly provides capacity to manage up to 100 extra peoples care, therefore providing more timely access to care and facilitating flow from hospital.
· The ‘Ask HIM Peer Mentor Service’ won the ‘Health and Wellbeing of the Population’ category. Health Development for Prisons staff member, Barry Rooney, along with his team set out to establish a Peer Mentor Service that provides a supportive and informative engagement for 80% of people arriving in HMP Maghaberry for the first time. The team formed a guiding coalition that included relevant staff and people in custody to design and implement the peer mentor service. Mentors and Staff co-designed ‘Quality of Life’ metrics that were based on core emotional concerns. 700 referrals were generated by peer mentor engagements from May 2021 to June 2022.
Chief Executive, Roisin Coulter was delighted to attend the awards and said, “The ‘Quality 4 All Awards’ demonstrate the exceptional improvement work that our teams are taking forward throughout the Trust.
“The standard of all the submissions was exceptionally high and I would like to congratulate everyone who submitted their work. Fundamentally, this fantastic work improves outcomes for our patients, service users and of course our staff.”