Monthly archives: May 2019

Unity 28-Day Challenge – Day 11, Test it out Thursday

Congratulations to Lyndon 5 on winning Friday’s competition. They worked together to write a poem that highlighted the patient benefits of using Unity, including increased safety and continuity of care.

Bethan Downing, Deputy Director of People and Organisation Development, handed them their prize yesterday. Keep a look out for more competitions over the coming weeks by taking part in the 28-Day Challenge.

Here’s the winning poem:

Scratched off today’s window and what did we see?

We need to make a rhyme of 5 benefits of unity.

These are Lyndon five’s showing how beneficial for our patients it will be.

Out with the paper, no more charts!

We will look so smart.

Patient information so easy to see!

Just log onto our Unity.

Excellent  service makes everyone happy for you to see , when we go live with Unity.

Patient safety is gunna be on top

With observations being viewed from them at the top

Unity is continuity of care from hospital journey to community

For today’s challenge, turn on every computer and printer on your ward and see if they work. If not, call our IT helpdesk on 4050 or log a ticket.

We want to make sure all devices are up and running ready for when we go live. Make sure you check every so often and let the IT team know if there are any issues.

Sun safe week: Information about getting better protected

Throughout the rest of this week at City Hospital, we will be hosting a variety of information stands about staying safe in the sun. There will also be a limited number of free product samples available and the opportunity to be entered into a prize draw.

Information stands will be located at:

• Arches cafe, City Hospital
• Dermatology department, (3rd floor Sheldon block) City Hospital

For more information please call ext. 4493 or email arutland@nhs.net.

Birmingham Velo road closures: Sunday 12 May

On Sunday 12 May, Vélo Birmingham and Midlands, a major 100-mile cycling event, will welcome cyclists of all abilities to the Midlands.

During the event, you may be affected by road closures throughout the event route. Colleagues are advised to review the below route information and plan ahead to ensure they are able to navigate the restrictions without issue.

If you need any assistance with planning your travel or have any access questions you can contact the event organisers by email route@velobirmingham.com or by leaving a message on the answering machine service on 0121 396 1296.

On the day of the event, you can contact the event organisers for direct assistance via the event hotline number 0121 396 1296, which will be live on Sunday 12 May from 4.30am-8pm.

See information documents below for more information:

Velo Birmingham route map

Velo Birmingham key processes for car providers

Velo Birmingham road closures

Star Awards 2019: Distinguished Service Award

Do you know an individual or team who has worked above and beyond the call of duty in their service to the Trust?

This could be a current employee or someone who has left during the previous year.

Nominate them for the Distinguished Service Award in this year’s upcoming Star Awards!

Ways to nominate:

• You can complete a paper nomination form which you can download by clicking here.
• You can send in a video nomination for free to swbh.comms@nhs.net via www.wetransfer.com Choose go to free. When doing the recording remember to state clearly who you are and the name of the person/team you are nominating.
• You can complete the online form by clicking here.

Be sure to check out this video featuring last year’s winner Ann Stevenson.

If you have any questions regarding the Star Awards, please contact the communications team on 0121 507 5303 or email swbh.comms@nhs.net.

For more information, please visit our dedicated Star Awards page on Connect.

Heartbeat: Champions help reduce patient falls at Rowley Hospital

The success of falls champions has begun to have a dramatic impact on the reduction of patient falls at Rowley Regis Hospital.

At the start of the year we welcomed Mary Parker to our Trust as the new falls prevention specialist nurse and with her new role Mary launched her bid to reduce patient falls. Recruiting an army of ‘falls champions’ to take her fight to the wards, Mary will be spending the next few months training staff in how to safely manage and support patients, spreading her falls prevention knowledge far and wide.

Figures show that at Rowley Regis Hospital last year there were an average of 11 patient falls recorded per month, with November and December each having 17 falls recorded. With the support of the falls champions, the number of patient falls has dropped significantly with only two falls being recorded at Rowley last month.

To find out more about the secrets to the success in reducing patient falls, Heartbeat spoke to Mary Parker to find our more, she said: ”I have 27 nominated falls champions across our Trust now and they’ll be taking the knowledge and support I train them with and embedding it in to their own wards and departments.”

The work is definitely paying off too, Eliza Tinsley ward had on average five falls a month and since this work, they’ve had no further falls reported.

“One of the most important messages when it comes to reducing falls is making sure that patients are supported appropriately, what we don’t want is wards and departments that are so risk averse that patients are restricted in their mobility,” said Mary. “Every patient is different and they each need to be supported to retain their level of mobility whilst also being safe.”

Justine Irish, Matron at Rowley Regis Hospital said: “We have worked hard to reduce falls and tissue damage this year.

“Falls have been high at Rowley on and off over the last few years especially last December so we looked at how we best cared for our more at risk patients, taking some of the lessons we learnt from our falls reduction work at Leasowes Intermediate Care Centre. We learnt that taking a positive team approach was the best way to implement improvement, meaning we involved the whole team which included our therapy colleagues and the wider MDT which includes our GPs.”

“We continue to look at areas for improvement and new ways of working, we recognise the risk of falling can never completely be removed, but carrying out multifactorial assessments can identify “individualised” risks and allow you to take action to remove that risk or reduce it.”

Unity Favourite Fairs – the final countdown

Favourite Fairs are a vital part of our preparations for when Unity goes live. It’s essential that everyone who will be using the system sets up their favourites.

If you haven’t already, time is running out to do so. Make sure you come along over the next couple of days to get Unity personalised to support your clinical role. The last sessions take place at City and Sandwell hospitals on Saturday.

The process of setting up your favourites should only take 20-40 minutes and members of the Unity team will be on hand to help. There will also be guides and a checklist to support you through the process.

For more information on Favourite Fairs, including what you can do in advance to prepare, please visit Connect or contact SWBH.informaticsnurses@nhs.net.

Unity 28-Day Challenge – Day 10, Wellbeing Wednesday

Feeling stressed about Unity? DON’T! There are lots of people and resources that can help. Have a look at the Unity section of Connect to learn something new.

There’s a glossary of terms, standard operating procedures, checklists, FAQs, quick reference guides and much more. If you can’t find what you’re looking for then please contact the hotline on ext. 2670.

Unity Favourite Fairs – extra sessions at City and Sandwell today

There are only four days left of Unity Favourite Fairs. If you haven’t gone along to set up your favourites then make sure you do. It will make the system much easier for you to use when it goes live.

We know that when you’re focused on caring for patients it can be a struggle to find time for other things so that’s why we’re making it even easier to attend a Favourite Fair.

As well as the normal sessions at D29 (which runs until 8.30pm) and Coffee Pot today, there will also be satellite hubs running from 7.30am to 4pm in the following locations:

• City ED seminar room
• Sandwell ED seminar room
• Management office, first floor, maternity building, City

There are only four days left of Favourite Fairs so please consult the table below and ensure you arrange a time to attend with your manager. The process of setting up your favourites should only take 20-40 minutes and members of the Unity team will be on hand to help.

For more information on Favourite Fairs, including what you can do in advance to prepare, please visit Connect or contact SWBH.informaticsnurses@nhs.net.

Message from Rachel Barlow, Chief Operating Officer – Update on internal IT incident today

Dear Colleagues,

Thank you for your patience and perseverance whilst we have been experiencing issues with our telephone system today. I am happy to report that as of 4.45pm this issue has now been resolved and our telephone systems are fully operational.

Thank you to all colleagues for your commitment and cooperation in working hard to treat patients safely. Business continuity plans can now be stood down and radios returned to the security team as we move in to the recovery phase of this incident.

Across our estate we are continuing with work to ensure that we have a robust network infrastructure and a full root cause analysis and review will be carried out to ensure that lessons are learnt from this incident.

Please make sure that you continue to report IT issues to the Helpdesk on ext.4050 or via the Connect portal. We need to continue reporting all issues so that we have a true picture of functionality across the Trust and so that the team can take action to resolve the problems.

Thanks for your patience.

Best wishes

Rachel Barlow

Chief Operating Officer

Heartbeat: A sound goodbye to Sue after 32 years

Senior Clerical Officer, Sue Evans has decided to retire after 32 years with the Trust.

Sue initially started with the organisation in October 1986 on a six month contract on a band 1 (known then as a grade 1) but with her hard work and determination, was soon offered a full time role.

As a senior officer, Sue has been supporting the private hearing service delivered by Boots as well as the audiology service at the hearing services centre at City Hospital.

Sue has very much enjoyed working in working in audiology for the last 32 years, savouring every challenge as the team and department has evolved over the decades.

She said: “Being on reception gave me the opportunity to interact and meet people from all walks of life, both staff and patients. I have made many friends for life.”

She added: “When I first started back in the 80s, we simply had to write in an appointment book. However, when computers were introduced in the 90s, I had to learn a new system of working.”

Dr Suki Dhillon, Audiology Services Manager has worked closely with Sue for many years and believes she is an unsung hero at the Trust.

She said: “Sue always puts patients first even if this may disadvantage her personally in some way. She has a very kind and gentle attitude that patients really respond to and nothing is too much trouble for her.”

Sue is planning to enjoy her retirement by travelling and spending time with her family.