Chief Executive Kevin McGee witnessed first hand one of Ward 21’s rapid five-minute improvement huddles on Wednesday.
Ward 21 have established daily huddles, focused on making improvements for their patients and staff, looking at ward data and agreeing aims and specific objectives.
The idea has already seen improvements in missed medications and intentional rounding, and Ward Manager Amanda Metcalf said: “It is working really well, it’s given everyone a voice, everybody is getting involved and they all seem to be really positive.
“We have seen some changes in our simple tests, with changes that we’ve made, and changes in data, so it’s really worked.
“I thought I was going to get quite a lot of resistance, ‘oh no, another huddle’, but the staff have really engaged with it and enjoyed it, and put ideas forward.
“We’re definitely seeing the benefit.
“We wanted to improve our overall performance and compliance, and, focusing on intentional rounding, we have seen an improvement of more than 40%.”
The huddle is held next to an improvement board, which displays project aims, details team members, had ward feedback, problem solving ideas, and data to track their progress throughout, and also utilise to drive any of their improvement projects - with successes celebrated, and thank you's captured.
And, after the recent launch of the GEOFF 90-day innovation cycle – GEOFF standing for Get ready to go home, Exit ward, Organise final discharge plans, Free up bed, Florence is admitted to the right bed - another aim is to increase the number of discharge patients being added to the discharge whiteboard.
