5 May 2020

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) has launched an improvement fortnight to improve patient journeys through its hospitals and ensure people are discharged as soon as they are medically fit to leave.

During the weeks either side of the Bank Holiday, the Trust will focus on working differently, testing new ideas to keep patient flow as smooth as possible.

The Emergency Care Intensive Improvement Weeks are being supported by ECIST (Emergency Care Improvement Support Team) and builds on SaTH’s continuous improvement programme, as well as supporting the development and implementation of actions to manage demand during the coronavirus pandemic.

Nigel Lee, Chief Operating Officer at SaTH, said: “We will be focusing on testing new ways of working to improve the management of patients across the emergency pathway.

“People don’t want to stay in hospital longer than they need to and any day spent in hospital without benefit is a day too many.

“The aim is to improve the processes within our departments and between departments, reduce the blockages in patient flow and enhance the way we communicate with each other and our patients. We will do this by utilising improvement methodologies, such as Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) and other tools taught through our internal Transforming Care Production System, and by incorporating best practice guidance.

The first Emergency Care Intensive Improvement Weeks (4–10 May) will take place at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the second week (11-18 May) will take place at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford – both of which are run by SaTH.

ECIST is a clinically-led national NHS team that has been designed by clinicians to help health and care systems deliver high quality emergency care.

Lucy Roberts, Improvement Manager at ECIST, said: “Our aim is to help healthcare organisations such as SaTH improve urgent and emergency care by encouraging the implementation of known good practice.

“We have worked with SaTH on a number of occasions, helping to improve aspects of services and patient care, and it is our job to work with their amazing staff to dig out their great ideas so they start sharing them among each other to start delivering demonstrable change.

“During the improvement weeks we won’t just be working with the ‘usual suspects’ but staff who each day, every day see and know how improvements to urgent and emergency can be made.”

Nigel added: “We will measuring success throughout the two weeks and looking at the impact of the new ways of working and any lessons learnt that can be taken forward in the future.”