Faster discharge on two Burton wards after Improvement Practice event | Latest news

Faster discharge on two Burton wards after Improvement Practice event

Discharge Cell at Queen's Hospital

More patients are being discharged earlier from two wards at Queen’s Hospital Burton thanks to work from the recent Discharge Cell as part of the UHDB’s Improvement Practice initiative.

Discharges before noon now sit at around 20 per cent, and awareness of the importance of robust planning for discharge has improved – all thanks to the work implemented by the teams who were part of the Discharge Cell event in April 2019.

The initial event identified areas that could improve how patients are discharged from Wards 4 and 20, with actions and quick wins identified to work on.

The Improvement Practice programme draws on learning from an American hospital (Virginia Mason in Seattle) to enable staff to use a new improvement methodology which delivers results that patients will see and feel. The methodology will also help to embed a culture of continuous improvement to constantly make the care we deliver to our patients and the efficiency of our working habits better.

A ‘cell’ is a group of multidisciplinary colleagues who’ve come together to focus on improving a particular part of our service. 

Now, 90 days on, the nine quick wins that were identified have been implemented, while 25 of the 36 actions have been put into place, resulting in many positive benefits for patients.

Emily Palmer, Senior Transformation Project Manager at UHDB, said: “In the three months following the Discharge Cell event, we’ve seen significant improvements in the number of discharges before noon on both wards, with that figure now standing at around 20 per cent on average. Some days, this can be as high as 35 per cent.”

Other improvements have seen standard operating policies introduced for morning huddles to standardise communications about patient care, a fast bleep system with the Pharmacy Team to ensure medication is ready in time for a patient’s discharge and a patient information leaflet for Ward 20 to help patients better understand the discharge process.

Although vast improvements have already been made, the work doesn’t stop here, as Emily explains:

“The formal review meetings may now have come to a close, but this is not the end of the journey.

“Improvement work is still ongoing and will continue to be led by the local and clinical management teams. This is a process of continuous improvement, so we’ll never stop looking for areas to improve, and we’ve learnt lots to feed into our next cell.”

Caz Greenwood, Pharmacy Technician on Ward 20, said that she has been extremely proud to have represented her ward at the Discharge Cell events: “The event really pulled together people from many teams to dissect, adjust, improve and implement better practices, always putting the patient first – with positivity remaining throughout.”

Sharon Martin, Executive Chief Operating Officer at UHDB, said: “In the course of 90 days we have made significant improvements and can see the evidence in the outcome measures. Imagine how much more of an impact we can have for patients if we can embed this pattern of continuous improvement as our new way of working.”

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