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Perfect Week: Theatres

August 8, 2019

The Perfect Week is a national initiative designed by the Emergency Care Intensive Support team (ECIST) to help us improve patient experience and our performance.

The Trust has adapted the initiative to run a perfect week across our elective orthopaedic pathways. During this week, a number of changes are being tested in our theatres, wards and departments that will improve patient outcomes, experience and overall productivity.  In collaboration with surgeons, anaesthetists, ward colleagues, theatre and booking teams we have developed a theatre safer flow bundle to support our service improvement work:

  • Scheduling – All lists will be optimised and patients will be given a date for surgery within 14 weeks. Lists will be booked to the production plan activity at least 4 weeks in advance giving time to prepare equipment and other enabling support e.g. anaesthetic pre-assessment before the day of surgery
  • Achieve safer staffing – Ensuring theatre teams have the right amount of colleagues, with the right skills in the right place at the right time. Safer staffing will be monitored daily at 8.40am at team brief. Team rotas will be visible 4 weeks in advance so the multi professional team know who they are scheduled to work with.
  • Flow – An average 15 minute turnaround time per patient per list (the completion of one surgical procedure and the start of the next)
  • Early Starts – Every list will have an identified Golden (first) patient,
  • Resources – No patient will experience an avoidable on the day cancellation due to lack of equipment, staff or capacity.

We have established a command structure to support rapid escalation and resolution.  The Perfect Week team consists of:

  • The theatre team –surgeons, anaesthetists, theatres, ward colleagues and the Trust scheduling team
  • Operational leads for each theatre to support with the identification and resolution of issues/delays and constraints
  • The group surgical service leads are supporting with constraints that cannot be mitigated locally and monitoring compliance against the Theatre SAFER flow bundle across the week