Last week we held the Leading Healthcare Awards, sponsored by CCube Solutions, where we celebrated and shared lots of great work from across health and care.
Here, we are taking the opportunity to highlight each winner in each category and provide you with more detail about the work that they are engaged in.
Many thanks again to all our finalists and our team of judges, and congratulations to all our winners!
Overall Winner
The overall winner was Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: Delivering the IT challenge of challenges
The Royal Papworth Digital team managed to achieve the triple challenge in 2019. Amidst one of the most challenging years; integrating a Pathology Service, Moving Hospital shortly followed by a CQC visit, the Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust digital team have been put through their paces.
Improving Outcomes
In this category we asked the finalists to demonstrate the outcomes they have improved, what they did and how they did it.
The winner was Wirral Community Health and Care Foundation Trust – Wirral Tele-triage service for Nursing and Residential homes.
Wirral Teletriage service is a digital nurse-lead clinical support service 24/7, 365 days a year to Wirral care homes. Facilitating care in the right place for the resident. The impact being a reduction of inappropriate hospital admissions and ambulance call outs; in addition to providing support to staff and residents.
“The Teletriage project has transformed healthcare within nursing and residential homes, enabling better outcomes for patients and reducing the pressure on neighbouring services such as NWAS and A&E.”
“We worked closely with our local CCG and Wirral University Teaching Hospital to find innovative and new ways of working and mobilising staff to meet the needs of local people. We developed a new ‘Teletriage Service’ in which senior nurses provide healthcare advice to care home staff, helping to manage any health concerns they have about their residents and aiming to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions.”
Technology Solution of the Year
In this category we ask to hear about how technology has made an impact, improved services and saved time.
The winner was Oxehealth – Transforming inpatient safety in Mental Health using Oxehealth’s Digital Care Assistant.
Patient Safety in Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust has reduced falls by 33%, enhanced observations by 71% and A&E visits by 56% in their dementia wards as a result of deploying Oxehealth’s Digital Care Assistant.
“Oxehealth’s contact-free optical sensor generates alerts to risky activity, allows spot checks of pulse and breathing rate and produces objective reports on activity.”
“Oxehealth have deployed the Digital Care Assistant onto Mental Health wards to reduce incidents, improve patient safety and experience.”
“The DCA works by using an optical sensor, the software detects and alerts staff to patient movement and measure vital signs with medical grade accuracy (Class IIa medical device; spot check pulse & breathing rate observations). Oxehealth were the first company in the world to offer medical grade, contact-free vital signs monitoring through an optical sensor.”
Estates and Facilities Management
Here, we wanted to hear about an organisation’s work within facilities management, what they did and more importantly what they achieved.
The winner was QE Facilities Limited (QEF).
“QEF is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust (GNHT). The subsidiary’s creation has been a catalyst for change, delivering significant improvements and efficiencies in the delivery of non-clinical services. QEF continues to diversify into a number of successful markets.”
“Over half of the current 700 strong workforce are on QEF’s local terms and conditions. This provides a great opportunity to compete in the open labour market for contract works. We have reduced sickness absence rates to 3.65% (significantly less than NHS in house models.) reduced agency and overtime costs but increased production efficiency as a result.”
Partnership of the Year
We asked ‘has your partnership delivered great results?’
The winner was Avon and Wiltshire Partnership – Be Safe Service
Be Safe offers assessment and therapeutic intervention services for cyp who have engaged in psb/hsb, their parents/carers and those supporting them. Many of the cyp have histories of abuse and trauma. Training and consultation is available to professionals. An emphasis is placed on partnership and collaborative working to best meet the needs of cyp.
“The Be Safe Service was established in 2008 in Bristol out of a recognition of a gap in services for this group of cyp, following a number of cross agency meetings involving Social Care, Youth Offending Services, Health, Barnardos, NSPCC and the Police, and following a city-wide mapping exercise.”
“Be Safe aims to:
• stop hsb in children and young people
• help children and young people make positive life choices
• help protect current and potential victims
• support families/carers to understand harmful sexual behaviours
• contribute to keeping the child/young person and others safe from harm”
Team of the Year
In this category we asked organisations to tell us why their team is great, what work they do and achieve.
The winner was The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust– eMeds team.
The multi-disciplinary eMeds team at The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust (MYHT) has revolutionised prescribing and improved medicines safety with the implementation of a Trust-wide electronic medication management project delivered at significant pace.
“The team was formed in early 2019 to lead on the implementation of eMeds, an electronic prescribing and medicines administration (ePMA) system, across all inpatient areas. Its membership was made up of clinical and non-clinical staff from the following areas:
- Doctors
- Pharmacy
- Nursing
- IT Programme Management Office
- IT Training
- System Operations
- System Administration
- IT Technicians
- Integration Specialists
- Asset Management”
Early Adopter of the Year
New to the awards this year, we wanted to recognise those brave people and teams who are early adopters and are willing to take the first step. In this category we wanted to hear about an organisation’s new initiative.
The winner was Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS FT – Utilising Simulation Modelling and Real Time Data – The Command Centre at Bradford Teaching Hospitals.
In partnership with GE Healthcare Partners, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has implemented the Command Centre, a technology-enabled programme of work that is a first-of-kind in Europe. The Command Centre is designed to use real-time data to make timely decisions that inform the actions required throughout the patients’ journey.
“The Command Centre is designed to inform operational staff, through the availability of real-time data, allowing for timely decision-making to support the actions required to maintain and improve the patients’ journey.”
“The implementation of an air traffic control style Command Centre at BTHFT enable actions designed to improve patient flow and the patient experience.”
Most Promising Pilot
We asked organisations “if your work is at pilot stage, we want to hear about the project, what you aim to achieve, or have achieved so far and what the problem is you are tackling and your progress to date.”
The winner was Liopa – Pilot of an AI-based communication aid for patients with tracheostomies who cannot speak, but can move their lips normally.
Liopa, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals and Queen’s University Belfast, have piloted a communications aid for tracheostomy patients, aimed at improving patient engagement and autonomy.
The android application will leverage Liopa’s Lipreading technology and, when downloaded onto device and held in front of the patient, will track lip movement and identify phrases being mouthed.
“There are a group of people who are unable to vocalise or move their limbs but are able to move their lips.”
“In a hospital setting these include those with neck and spinal cord injuries, degenerative neurological conditions and some head and neck cancers.”
“There are only a few ways of allowing these patients to communicate and those resources are expensive (lip readers or ‘eye gaze’ devices) and need extensive training to use.”
“Liopa, in conjunction with Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Queen’s University of Belfast have piloted the SRAVI application (Speech Recognition App for the Voice Impaired) which will be based on LipRead, Liopa’s Visual Speech Recognition platform.”
Best Use of Data
We asked “have you used data or research to make improved decisions, processes and positive change?”
The winner was The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust – Use of data in an acute trust to improve outcomes for sepsis patients.
Introducing a sepsis screening EPR tool at The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust has increased our sepsis screening of eligible Emergency Department patients from 71% to 97.7%, improving the identification and management of sepsis patients, reducing mortality to a historical low and below national average.
“There are around 250,000 cases of sepsis a year in the UK (UK Sepsis Trust 2019). At least 46,000 people die every year as a result of the condition and timely sepsis management continues to be a national issue.”
“We wanted to find better ways to manage sepsis care to provide the very best for our patients. Improving the screening of patients for sepsis and ensuring timely administration of IV antibiotics would be crucial.”
Excellence in Communication and Engagement
In this category we wanted to hear what organisations did, how they did it and what they achieved.
The winner was Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals – Traffic Light Hats Appeal.
DBTH recently launched an appeal for local volunteers to knit an assortment of ‘traffic light hats’, which are used to indicate the level of care neonatal babies require. Although the original aim was to collect 100 garments, the campaign was so wide-reaching that we ended up with over 10,000.
“In March 2019, we launched an appeal for ‘traffic light hats’ that are worn by new-born tots. These knitted garments, which come in green, orange and red, are incredibly important, with each different colour signalling the level of care that is required for the respective wearer at a glance.”
“These hats are used within the first 24 hours of the infant’s life and are then taken home as a keepsake.”
“As such, the Maternity and Communications teams came together to develop a comprehensive engagement plan, that considered both traditional and social media platforms.”
“Just one day after the appeal was launched, more than 400,000 had seen the initial Facebook posts and, not long after that, the first batch of hand-stitched headwear began to arrive.”
“Packages were delivered from countries as far-afield as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, alongside countless local well-wishers and – at the height of the appeal – over 100 hats were arriving per day.”
Workforce Initiative of the Year
We asked “has your organisation delivered a great workforce initiative this year? Tell us about the project in this category.”
The winner was Maudsley Learning, South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust – Improving workforce development, improving mental health .
The Audit Heroes Awards 2019 was a campaign to celebrate the clinical audit community and the impact they have on the quality of health services in the UK. The campaign celebrated a section of the NHS workforce whose work often goes unnoticed and un-championed yet is crucial to evidence-based decision-making.
“Clinical audit measures the success of clinical activity and services. It lets individual hospitals know when they are doing well and where they need to focus their improvement efforts.”
“National clinical audit has an important role in influencing and shaping national policy. Yet the clinical audit community has not traditionally been visible in the NHS and receives very few plaudits.”
“We established the Audit Heroes Awards six years ago to let this community know they are valued for their professionalism and to celebrate their contribution to improving patient outcomes and experience.”
“Nominations are made in Autumn and the winners announced during Clinical Audit Awareness Week, a national awareness campaign spearheaded by HQIP each November.”
Clinical Improvement
The winner was Ramsay Health Care UK – Innovation in Patient Safety: Ramsay Neurological Services Early Warning Score
Gardens & Jacobs Neurological Rehabilitation Centres introduced a new early warning score system in order to improve its response to the highly complex needs of its residents, who commonly suffer from spinal cord and brain injuries and neurological disabilities owing to functional disturbances of the autonomic nervous system.
“We maintain a high ratio of Registered Nurses and Health Care Assistants to meet the resident’s physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs.”
“Our staff are highly trained to care for resident needs with specialist needs such as tracheostomy/ventilator care, gastrostomy care, seizure management, postural management, safeguarding of vulnerable adults and end of life care.”
“We nurture teamwork and professionalism, and staff are driven to achieve service excellence on every aspect of care delivery to bring a continuous stream of improvements to our service and facilities which enhances the quality of life for our residents.”
Primary Care / Community Care Innovation
This category focused on innovations and ideas in primary care and community care settings.
The winner was AccuRx Chain – Bringing patients and their healthcare teams together .
AccuRx Chain has transformed patient communication in primary care. It has enabled 50,000 staff in 3,000 GP practices to message 6 million patients quickly and easily, saving each user 40 minutes per day, reducing calls to the practice and letters sent out, as well as improving patient experience.
Secondary Care Innovation
The winner was Avon and Wiltshire Partnership – ARC – Asylum Seeker and Refugee Clinic – A service dedicated to support children, young people and families who are seeking asylum or are refugees
This new clinic supports the increasing needs of children, young people and their families seeking asylum within the UK and those who have refugee status. It also works with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC). They also provide one of the only pieces of transition work between adult services and CAMHS.
“This clinic arose out of the request from both young people and professionals for there to be a service that could ensure smooth and clear access into mental health support.”
“Many young people, who have experienced enduring traumatic experiences, arrive into the city confused, isolated and distressed.”
“The clinic aims to provide a pathway of care that holds the young person and their cultural needs at the centre of treatment.”
“This means that often as a team we are working closely with a variety of agencies within the community, as well as offering consultations, assessments, group and individual work.”
“Currently, we are the only NHS clinic in the south west to offer a specialised service for asylum seekers and refugee children, young people and families.”
“This is particularly important as the clinic is located within Bristol, the City of Sanctuary since 2016.”
Patient Safety
In this category we wanted to hear about an organisation’s work that has made a positive impact on patient safety.
The winner was Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals – Sharing How We Care at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals .
Over the course of the past year, DBTH has been making incredible strides in patient safety, an area that is at the forefront of everything we do. Implementing various schemes and devising new ways of sharing learning amongst colleagues, there has been plenty of activity in this regard.
“One of these was the adoption of a simple, yet effective system for monitoring how much individuals are drinking and whether or not their fluid intake needs to be increased.”
“By using different coloured jug lids (red, amber and green), clinicians are able to understand at a glance if their patients are at risk of dehydration.”
“They do this by supplying a 750ml red-lid container of water each morning, and then changing the colour with each refill until the patient has drunk enough to reach green.”
“If at any point the nurses are concerned about the patient, or if by afternoon the red lid is still attached, this will be escalated to a senior colleague for further action.”
“Although this is a very straightforward concept, the benefits produced by allowing clinicians to visually monitor the amount our patients are drinking cannot be overstated.”
“In fact, since the scheme was implemented, we have been able to substantially reduce dehydration within our wards.”
