Value in Healthcare Awards winners for 2015

Finalists

  • Wessex Academic Health Science Network: MISSION Severe Asthma – Modern Innovative Solutions to Improve Outcomes in Severe Asthma – winner
  • Quarriers: The William Quarrier Scottish Epilepsy Centre – highly commended
  • SEQOL: Developing a nurse led ultrasound service to confirm or exclude the diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in primary care
  • North East London Foundation Trust: Primary Care Assessment and Treatment Centre (PCATC)

Wessex AHSN: MISSION Severe Asthma – Modern Innovative Solutions to Improve Outcomes in Severe Asthma

The judges said: “Our winner has a fantastic multidisciplinary team approach. The impact is excellent, well evaluated and it works with high risk patients, which in the longer term will reduce death rates.”

Mission Severe Asthma is a project that recognises the benefits to be made in supporting self-care and enabling patients to manage their own conditions. Following a consultation from MISSON one patient said, “I actually feel I am now in complete control of my condition, it no longer worries me”.

Launched by Wessex AHSN, this project uses a model of asthma assessment and care that aims to reduce the length of time before uncontrolled asthma is recognised. MISSION is comprised of two clinics, one rapid access asthma clinic (RAAC) and one severe asthma assessment clinic (SAAC).

RAAC is a “carousel station” style patient assessment site where comprehensive asthma reviews are undertaken. At the end of each assessment patients receive an individual self-management plan peak flow diary and interactive presentation.

From the first round of RAAC assessments, 22 patients were identified and sent to SAAC held at Queen Alexandra Hospital. At the SAAC clinic patients underwent a medical review, physiotherapy and lung function tests, all performed by a multidisciplinary team.

At the beginning of the sessions 64 per cent of people who responded to a patient survey said that they felt confident or very confident in managing their asthma; at the end of the sessions this increased to 93 per cent.

Data from three participating surgeries also show a 24 per cent reduction in oral steroid courses and a 25 per cent reduction in non-routine GP appointments.

Finalists

  • Quarriers: The William Quarrier Scottish Epilepsy Centre
  • SEQOL: Developing a nurse led ultrasound service to confirm or exclude the diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in primary care
  • North East London FT: Primary Care Assessment and Treatment Centre (PCATC) 

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