Five East Midlands’ patient safety initiatives are to be recognised for coming top of the grid at an innovation event this week which will be themed around learning from the safety standards of Formula 1.
The innovative projects will be highlighted at the East Midlands Patient Safety Innovation Conference in Leicester today and will showcase best practice in this area of healthcare.
Each initiative is the brainchild of a member or group of healthcare staff from the region. Staff were invited to submit their patient safety innovation proposals to NHS East Midlands, who are organising the conference, and go through a ‘Dragon Den style’ presentation to win.
The conference, which has been organised by NHS East Midlands, will also include a talk from Lesley Cox, Health and Safety Manager at Silverstone Circuits Ltd, on achieving high levels of safety for the public through team performance.
The innovative projects which will be showcased at the conference are:
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A intra-operative anaesthetic handover checklist for improving patient safety, communication and team working - devised by a member of the team at Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
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A scenario based board game themed around infection control which can be used as a training tool for infection control and other clinical scenarios. Thiswas thought up by membersof the Infection Prevention and Control team at Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Trust.
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A junior doctor patient safety forum to give those training to be doctors the opportunity to discuss safety issues with their peers and learn about patient safety from experts at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust.
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A training course to increase the medical knowledge and safety awareness of medical students called ‘Our Doctors Our Tomorrow – Aspiring to Excellence’ and developed by a member of the medical director’s team from Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust.
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An online handover system which allows information on patient’s needs to transfer with them wherever they go and prioritises patients care with a traffic light system. This system was also developed by a team from Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust.
Four of the projects will receive a share of £3,500 Patient Safety Innovation funding to help put their idea into practice. The fifth project, the online handover project, was deemed so innovative that it also deserved to be recognised at the event and was therefore highly commended by the judges.
Paul Wood, East Midlands’ Safer Care Workstream Clinical Lead, said: “We are delighted to be showcasing projects that highlight the innovative work being carried out by NHS staff to provide high quality, safe and effective patient care and improve outcomes for patients. This event will provide the perfect opportunity to share the learning from these projects, other industry and patient safety experts and will give colleagues from across the region and beyond the chance to take away these ground-breaking ideas and put them into practice in their own organisations.”
