Heartbeat: Safety plan reaches 100 per cent compliance
August 17, 2018
During July, we achieved 100 per cent delivery of our safety plan standards.
The safety plan was introduced in January last year as part of a drive to improve safety, quality and care, as well as to improve patient experience and engagement and change the culture of our clinical workforce.
The plan involves clinical staff completing 10 safety checks, also known as always events, when assessing a patient. This happens within the first 24 hours of admission.
One of the main reasons the plan was introduced was because patients didn’t always know their care pathway or plan of care and data showed there was a poor completion of fundamental clinical assessments and documents.
Making the necessary changes resulted in a number of positive outcomes, including:
- A reduction in falls by 58 per cent
- Patients are at the centre of their care plans
- A saving of £33,800 which has been achieved by…..
Chief Executive, Toby Lewis spoke about the achievement in his Friday message on 20 July, he said: “This week, for the first time, we are seeing 100 per cent delivery of our standards, and in particular the drive to make sure any missed checks are completed inside 48 hours.
“That is a significant and important step, and thank you to those folk working to do this each day and night.
“Attention to detail is at the heart of our safety effort and so is team work. Every VTE assessment is a chance to save a life. Our sepsis data shows us that there remain opportunities to see risk and intervene. We know from the feedback loop on inter ward discharges that we still have a handful of missed medication handovers when we move patients. Our focus on that, your focus, is a credit to a determination to put patients first.”
Colleagues are also full of praise for the safety plan. The team have received a number have also been reaping the benefits of the safety plan with much positive feedback:
“This is a really fantastic tool for our team. It’s a step by step instruction that is easy to follow and a good prompter.”
“The manual has worked really well on the surgical assessment unity and we are delighted by how the team have quickly taken to it. This is an example of good practice and we now plan to introduce the manual in other areas.”
“The safety plan brought to the forefront what we needed to put in place to help us manage the pain of our neonates. Pain assessment is the fifth vital sign and should be added to every vital sign assessment. As a result the team are receiving training and we can now say that our babies are getting the pain management they need.”
“When we joined the safety llan roll out in March, it highlighted to us the knowledge gaps that existed within the team regarding the use of N-PASS. We also realised the tool was not being used by everyone as well as it could.”