Media Release
Date: 23 March 2017
RUH staff in line for four national patient safety care awards
Innovative patient care techniques and an unusual 'tea trolley' training tool have put staff at the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust in line for four national awards.
Consultant Anaesthetist Dr Lesley Jordan has been shortlisted as a finalist for the title of Quality Lead of the Year in the Health Service Journal/Nursing Times Patient Safety Care Awards 2017. Lesley is Patient Safety Lead at the RUH and is nominated for improving patient safety Trust-wide.
Her work has also contributed to a second nomination in the Improving Safety in Surgical Procedures category. This is for the implementation of a World Health Organisation checklist that's carried out in theatres before and after every operation.
Lesley said: "This nomination is national recognition of the high-quality multidisciplinary teams in our operating theatres. In the last five years there have been no incidents of what are known as 'never events' – serious medical mistakes that should never happen. The teams' use of the checklist is a key part in preventing them."
Tea trolley training – a novel idea thought up by Consultant Anaesthetist Fiona Kelly, initially to deliver education of practical procedures to anaesthetists in theatre, has also been shortlisted in the Education and Training category.
The concept has since spread to include many practical teaching topics in theatres, and also to deliver essential education in sepsis and acute kidney injury for frontline staff on the wards.
Fiona said: "It is, simply, a mobile training station, a trolley with educational materials on the top and tea, coffee and cake on the bottom, that's taken into rooms to train people during the normal working day – followed by refreshments. It provides high-quality training where people work, so there's no need to take study leave or pay for expensive courses. It's been exceptionally well received."
The RUH is also one of the key hospitals participating in the Emergency Laparotomy Collaborative, which has also been shortlisted in the Patient Safety in Surgical Care category. The RUH is one of 24 hospitals which have been working together to improve care for patients undergoing a serious emergency operation called a laparotomy.
The Patient Safety Care Awards 2017 awards winners will be announced in July.