4 July 2016

A leaflet has been created to ensure patients on Ward 9 at The Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford are informed of their discharge date within 15 minutes of arrival.

The patient information leaflet was created during The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust’s (SaTH) second Rapid Process Improvement Week (RPIW) for the Respiratory Value Stream after research revealed it was taking 20 hours for patients on Ward 9 at PRH to receive their discharge plan.

Respiratory is one of the areas SaTH is looking at during its five-year partnership with the Virginia Mason Institute in Seattle.

Dr Nicola Rowe, a member of the Respiratory Discharge Value Stream ‘Away Team’, said: “The first thing many people ask when they come to hospital is ‘when can I go home?’ When we found out it was taking 20 hours for people to get this really important information it just didn’t feel right and therefore we set about making improvements.

“The team came up with the idea of a leaflet. It is a really simple but clever idea as it answers a lot of questions about a stay in hospital as well as giving an estimated date of discharge.

“Every patient who comes onto the ward now gets a copy of the leaflet, ensuring they know their expected discharge date within 15 minutes. Going forward it might be possible to implement our learning into other areas of our hospitals.”

During the RPIW a number of other improvements were also made, including a reduction in the number of steps staff walk during the process of initial patient assessments.

Dr Rowe said: “The number of steps taken by a nurse to enable the completion of the initial patient assessment has been reduced from 137 to 45, the number of steps taken by the physiotherapist has been reduced from 264 to 74 and an Occupational Therapists’ walking distance has been reduced from 196 to 80.

“By taking out from the day-to-day to observe how the job is being done it allows fresh eyes to think of ideas that will eliminate waste. This is really important because the less time spent walking around the ward and looking for equipment means more time spent with the patient.”

The team, led by Process Owner Sarah Sivill, will continue to work with staff on Ward 9 at PRH in an effort to make further improvements, which they will report to the public in 30 days, 60 days and 90 days-time.