Monthly archives: August 2018
Microguide update: Trust guidelines for treatment of urinary tract infections
Please be aware that the Trust’s guidelines for the treatment of urinary tract infections have been updated. Full details are on the antibiotic app, Microguide, which should update automatically. If you do not have the app, it can be downloaded for free from iTunes and Google Play store. The guidelines can also be found by clicking here.
For more information please contact conor.jamieson@nhs.net
Star Awards 2018 Non-clinical Team of the Year – vote now
Have you voted for the Non-clinical Team of the Year yet?
This award recognises teams that have provided a consistently excellent performance whilst meeting financial and operational targets.
The shortlisted teams are:
- Medical records
- Scheduled care booking team
- Recruitment campaign team
Voting closes on Friday 31 August.
Click here to visit the voting page.
Alternatively, you can download a Star Awards paper voting form.
Heartbeat: Miniature Shetland ponies surprise patients at Sandwell Hospital
These are the miniature Shetland ponies that brought a smile to the faces of patients at Sandwell Hospital.
Lilly and Fern were brought along as part of a pet therapy programme at our organisation.
The tiny horses, from the Phoenix Children’s Foundation, based in Leicestershire, were petted and fed by stroke patients, as well as youngsters being treated by the paediatric team.
The visit was funded by Your Trust Charity. Amanda Winwood, Fundraising Manager, said: “The patients absolutely loved meeting Fern and Lilly. For some of them, it’s the first time that they have got close to a horse and been able to feed or walk it.
“Others used to keep horses as pets and so for them it brings back memories for them.
“It’s very important for our patients to experience something like this as it really enhances their care journey with us.”
The horses were led through the main entrance of the hospital and into an outdoor play area attached to one of the paediatric wards. Patients were brought out to them so they could meet the ponies and spend time with them.
Claire Mcquoid, 38, was with her son Freddie, aged two, who is being treated at the hospital. She said: “We’ve learned with Freddie that he’s very delayed with his speech due to being born prematurely and suffering meningitis at a young age.
“However, he shows animals a lot of emotion and affection. Seeing the horses today has put a big smile on his face and he is really excited. He loves to interact with animals all the time and it helps with his progression.”
Arron Chohan, aged 11, from Tividale, had been at the hospital for a physiotherapy appointment and was left overwhelmed by his close encounter with Lilly and Fern.
He said: “They are really beautiful and their fur is soft. We heard there were ponies here, but I thought someone was joking. It’s really cool and I’ve enjoyed meeting them today. It’s a great idea.”
His mum Gurvinder added: “It’s a nice distraction for children and for them to experience something like this when they are coming into hospital. It puts them at ease. Arron isn’t afraid of animals and he is happy to interact with them.”
Dr Balraj Mavi, who works in one of our paediatric wards, said: “Having these animals here has really made a difference to the patient experience today. It has helped them to enjoy their visit.”
Our volunteer service currently works with Pets as Therapy, an organisation which brings dogs in on a weekly basis to meet stroke patients. The sessions are proving a huge hit with the patients, encouraging them to use their hands to stroke the dogs, and also improve speech as they talk to the animals.
Tusker car benefit scheme – summer sale
Tusker are offering a variety of discounts on their car benefit schemes until the end of September.
Don’t forget – your fixed monthly amount covers insurance, road tax, replacement tyres, breakdown cover, servicing, MOT and maintenance meaning you won’t have any unexpected garage bills.
Click here for more information regarding Tusker’s benefit schemes.
Heartbeat: Listening into action – going for good
L-R: Group Director, Chetan Varma; Director of Operations, Michelle Harris; Group Director of Nursing, Claire Hubbard; Deputy Directorate General Manager Admitted Care, Craig Simpson and Chief Executive, Toby Lewis[/caption]
We hosted our July listening into action (LiA) event in the education centre at Sandwell Hospital, where the focus was on the basics of good care being consistently delivered across the Trust.
The event saw over 150 clinical colleagues of all grades from medicine and emergency care and primary care communities and therapies, come together to discuss methods of how we can continue deliver consistent care as well as areas for further improvement.
Group Director of Nursing Medicine and Emergency Care, Claire Hubbard opened proceedings with a look at what we had achieved so far as an organisation following on from Care Quality Commission (CQC) findings. This included aspects rated as good, those which required improvement and those deemed inadequate.
Claire said: “Following on from recent CQC inspections, there were a variety of findings.
“Our community inpatients and medical care at Sandwell Hospital were rated as good. The CQC noted that inpatient services were clean and well maintained and there was sufficient evidence of multidisciplinary team working across therapies, nursing and medicine and good integration of care for patients at both services.
“Our medical care at City requires some improvements with some inconsistencies in the application of the mental capacity act when people were unable to make some decisions for themselves and slight delays occurring at some stages of the patient journey from admission to discharge.
“Our community adult inpatient care at Rowley Regis Hospital was rated (in parts) as inadequate with medicine management being of concern due and the high number of agency workers.”
Claire was followed by Directorate General Manager – Admitted Care, Craig Simpson who facilitated a group activity which asked colleagues in the room to think about what potentially disrupts them, gets in their way and ultimately hinders them from doing their job effectively.
Craig fed back: “We are continuing to address our ongoing IT issues, improve care documentation, ensure professions work together better in teams and have a higher capacity of social worker support.
“Whilst we’re improving in these areas, it’s clear that more work needs to be done to fully rectify these issues.”
The LiA concluded with a session led by Group Director of Medicine and Emergency Care, Chetan Varma and Group Director of Operations, Medicine and EC, Michelle Harris which looked at how patient flow could be improved.
Chetan said: “The consultant of the week and push/pull initiatives were introduced to improve senior clinical management decision making for patients, including timely discharge.
“We had mixed responses from attendees with some saying these methods worked better for them and were simple to implement, whilst the experience of others differed. It was good to get some feedback as to how people on the frontline feel these projects are working and get some ideas on how they could be improved which will help our overall goal of improving patient flow throughout the organisation.”
Star Awards 2018 clinical team of the year (children) – vote now
Have you voted for the Clinical Team of the Year (children) yet?
This award recognises teams that have provided consistently high quality care for children whilst demonstrating best practice.
The shortlisted teams are:
- Infant feeding team
- Young parents maternity service
- Advanced neonatal nurse practitioners
Voting closes on Friday 31 August.
Click here to visit the voting page.
Alternatively, you can download a Star Awards paper voting form.
Children’s services summer party: 24 August – do you have a tombola?
Your Trust Charity are hosting a summer party on Friday 24 August in the courtyard garden at Sandwell Hospital for our children’s services but need your support!
We’re currently seeking a tombola for the event. If you or anybody you know may have a tombola which you’re willing to borrow to Your Trust Charity for the summer party, please contact amanda.winwood@nhs.net by Thursday 23 August.
Heartbeat: State of the art robot improving operations in pharmacy
We’re always trying to find new and innovate ways to deliver better service and to improve patient experience across all our hospital sites.
One department who have embraced new technology is pharmacy, who introduced a robot dispenser to improve accuracy and efficiency. The state of the art robot dispenser sorts medication ready for labelling, which can then be distributed across our hospital wards for patients. The robot is produced by Becton Dickinson, an American based medical company that specialises in the manufacturing of medical devices and technology.
Heartbeat caught up with Chief Pharmacist, Puneet Sharma and Chief Pharmacy Technician, Divna Young to get more of an insight into life behind the scenes in pharmacy.
Q: Pharmacy has recently had a refit of the dispensary at City Hospital – what was this about?
Puneet: “We had an aging facility, which was last renewed in 1986. With changes in workload pressure and to improve patient flow, we have undertaken some reconfiguration works. The key aims are to improve our turnaround time, reduce our likelihood of dispensing errors and to release colleagues back onto wards for more patient facing activities.”
Q: What is the role of the robot in this?
Divna: “We have had a dispensing robot for a number of years now, however, it was not utilised to its full potential. The reconfiguration has allowed dispensary colleagues access to it so we can dispense prescriptions in a more accurate and timely manner, which we were not really able to do before logistically. We also will be able to increase its use for stocking items in a better manner.”
Q: What else has changed with the refit?
Divna: “We have managed to improve the working environment for our colleagues which also helps reduce errors and improve speed. A new controlled drugs area has been introduced to make this process more secure and safer. The more open and cleaner area now has work benches at the correct height and computers in the right places. It also has improved communication in the room and staff morale.
“Utilising the robot more has also meant we are able to reduce our stock holding in the dispensary drastically, as stock is now aggregated. This reduction, combined with the better stock management a robot provides means we should make both a one off saving and a small on-going saving in not ordering as many drugs.”
Q: What does the future hold for Pharmacy at City Hospital?
Puneet: “Importantly for nursing/ward colleagues, in the final phase of the refit over the next month, we will be introducing medication lockers, like we have at our Sandwell pharmacy. These will allow ward colleagues, through controlled access, to obtain dispensed items at any time without pharmacy having to be open or waiting in a queue to get ward medicines.
“Also, ward colleagues currently spend a considerable amount of their time calling pharmacy to see if prescriptions have been dispensed. Later this month, we will be rolling out a Trust wide tracker that can be accessed from any computer. This will tell colleagues what stage prescriptions are at in pharmacy and if they’re ready for collection, without the need to call, thus leaving pharmacy colleagues with more time to provide a more efficient service.
“Feedback from pharmacy colleagues has been positive and the new controlled drugs area so successful we will be rolling this out at Sandwell also, together with the prescription tracker.”
Seeking peer vaccinators for flu campaign
Are you interested in becoming a peer vaccinator for this season’s Flu campaign?
If this is of interest or for more information, please contact k.westwell@nhs.net or call ext. 3803.
When Rev Mary helped patient fulfil dying wish
It was one of the most poignant moments that Rev Mary Causer has faced during her time working within the NHS.
As chaplain at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, she was asked to marry an end-of-life care patient to his long-term girlfriend at City Hospital, Birmingham.
“I had just started working at the Trust and was asked to marry a beautiful couple,” explained mum-of-one Mary, aged 53.
“The patient was very ill but wanted to carry out this one final act with his partner.
“It was a sacred moment that was an important part of the process for him and his wife because they been together for a while.”
Mary, who has worked for the Trust for more than two years, added: “I had to organise the legal side of the marriage, and also be the emotional support – which was all a new experience to me. The staff were amazing throughout and helped to decorate his room where we held the ceremony.
“The patient sadly passed away soon afterwards, but I have kept in touch with his wife and she is very grateful that she was able to say her vows to her husband witnessed by her family and friends.”
Working within the NHS is certainly a big change from Mary’s previous job.
She recalled: “I had come from working as a chaplain in a category A prison, so there was a big difference in the type of ministry I provided.
“But I really enjoy being here. My hope is that wherever I am across the Trust, I can make someone smile. I like making people laugh, but it’s also about being in the right place at the right time for those people who need more direct spiritual input.
“The chaplaincy is incredibly important and I see that my congregation isn’t a church, but a whole Trust.
“There is no typical day for me because we offer a bespoke service for patients, their families and the staff that work here and I offer faith to those who are seeking it.”
Mary decided to become a chaplain after studying theology at college. She had been invited to sing at a prison. She saw how a chaplaincy worked and it appealed to her.
“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do whilst I was at college, but singing at the prison helped me to come to a decision,” said grandmother Mary, who lives in Langley, Oldbury.
In her spare time Mary likes watching murder mysteries and also sprucing up her garden. So who is Mary’s hero? “It has to be Emily Pankhurst – she had no fear and she had a conscience that she lived out, making changes not just for England but across the world.”
← Older items Newer items →