HSJ Awards 2014: Patient Safety

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Foundation Trust: Improving organisational safety culture through quality and safety champions

The judges backed the data-driven and factual but passionate approach along with the staff engagement and “belief”.

Patient safety is Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Foundation Trust’s top priority, and it set up a programme of creating staff quality and safety champions.

Almost 200 employees have joined the initiative, many through word of mouth, and are working on 60 improvement projects. Quality and safety champions are given in-house training, and a supportive staff network exists.

The champions are free to work on any improvement they can show is aligned to the trust’s objectives. They are supported with data from incident reporting systems, investigations, safety surveys and audits.

Bronze, silver and gold badges are awarded to champions as they progress their improvement projects.

The trust has seen some impressive results, with reductions in length of stay for patients following certain incidents, and fewer patients suffering moderate or severe harm from falls. A consistent 98 per cent are free of hospital-acquired harm, according to polls. Patient and staff satisfaction has improved and a budget surplus was recorded.

The Trust hopes every member of staff will eventually become a quality and safety champion. It said its initiative could be replicated in any health service organisation.

Other finalists’ projects:

• West Hertfordshire Hospitals Trust – Daily Onion: towards a culture of patient-safety first and always
• Alder Hey Children’s Foundation Trust – Revision of the surgical morbidity and mortality meetings: a tool for improving patient safety
• Burton Hospitals Foundation Trust – Preventing falls through reviewing medication and nursing ownership
• Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust – Safer ‘wet floor’ signs
• North Bristol Trust – Improving medicines reconciliation on admission
• Nottingham University Hospitals Trust – Safer surgery
• Royal Devon and Exeter Foundation Trust – Exeter quality improvement academy
• South Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group – Enhancing the safety and quality of care for care home residents in South Worcestershire
• Thames Valley Health Innovation and Education Cluster – SKINtelligence: developing a new culture around safety and avoiding skin breakdown
• Walsall Clinical Commissioning Group – The use of a pharmacist-led technology intervention method to show a reduction in patient harm