Improvement Practice in A&E helping reduce waiting times for CT scans | Latest news

Improvement Practice in A&E helping reduce waiting times for CT scans

Improvement practice in emergency department

Patients who are frail who are admitted to A&E at the Royal Derby Hospital have seen waiting times for CT scans reduced by up to 65 per cent following UHDB’s latest Improvement Practice Cell Improvement Event.

As well as seeing a reduction in CT scan waiting times, teams have also introduced of a rapid screening process for the Frail Elderly Assessment Team (FEAT), standardised work to ensure patients are referred promptly and efficiently and fully utilising IT systems to ensure all frail patients are captured as they arrive at A&E – all of which are helping to reduce the time patients are waiting to receive treatment.

The ED, Frailty and Falls Cell Event took place over a week during July and brought together clinicians and management teams from the A&E Department to help identify areas where the pathway for frail patients could be improved at the Royal Derby Hospital.

During the event, the teams identified 20 ‘quick wins’ which could implemented immediately, of which 18 are already in place. These ‘quick wins’ aim to make instant impact in the department to improve the experience of our patients.

What is Improvement Practice?

The improvement practice will strive to transform and continuously improve the care we deliver to our patients, while improving the efficiency of our working habits. The practice focuses on lean techniques and a systems approach, an approach widely used across the commercial sector which is applied to processes to identify waste and concentrate on what adds value to the customer. 

Lee Doyle, General Manager for the Acute Medicine Business Unit in Derby, said that his team felt a real benefit from the event:

“The event atmosphere was charged with lots of energy. It brought together a number of teams, including Imaging, the Frail Elderly Assessment Team and social care, and it was great to see them all come together sharing their ideas.

“The Front Door continues to be challenging. In terms of managing frailty, we have very clear actions and everyone’s really positive and engaged with regards to making it a better journey for our patients."

Tom Rollinson, Transformation Facilitator at UHDB, said: “This is just the start of the process. The event was a catalyst for embedding continuous improvement and the principles of lean working in the team.

“We will be supporting staff and clinicians over the next few weeks and working with people in their departments so that we can maintain this great momentum.”

We have placed cookies on your computer to help make this website better. You can at any time read our cookie policy. Otherwise, we will assume that you're OK to continue.

Please choose a setting: