Congratulations to two teams at the Trust, who have each won a Health Service Journal (HSJ) Patient Safety Award 2023!
Clinical Education Team
The Clinical Education Team scooped the prestigious 'Harnessing a Human Factors Approach to Improve Patient Safety' accolade, for their simulation work in preparation for the transfer of patients from the old Royal to the new hospital site, and for the transfer of services across our sites.
The purpose of the project was for teams to simulate or replicate their work in their new environments, and allow staff familiarisation, in order to identify any potential problems or what changes may be required to facilitate safe and effective care for patients.
Some of the exercises included:
- The transfer of patients from Critical Care areas via the tunnel, as recorded in the BBC documentary about the relocation to the new Royal
- A patient journey from the Emergency Department to theatres and recovery
- A patient journey around the Cardiorespiratory Unit
- A Major Incident training exercise, including partners North West Ambulance Service and Merseyside Police.
Chelsea McDowell, Surgical Simulation Lead, Tim Parr, Simulation Lead, and Kelly Hughes, Simulation Manager, led the winning project, and attended the awards in Manchester to collect the award on behalf of the whole team.
Lisa Price, Head of Clinical Education, said: “I am incredibly proud of the whole Clinical Education Team and their vital work in supporting the safe move of our patients to the new Royal, and other services across our sites. This simulation work was so important in fully understanding how we could transfer some of the sickest people in our hospitals, and this award is testament to that. Congratulations to everyone who was involved.”
Heart Failure Team
The Heart Failure team won the ‘Safety Improvement through Technology Award’, for their work setting up the UK's first remote monitoring acute heart failure virtual ward.
In partnership with NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, Mersey Care and Docobo, the project is helping to reduce hospital admissions and mortality, by enabling patients to be managed at home safely and effectively, with daily consultant virtual ward rounds and support from experienced Telehealth nurses for up to 14 days.
Heart failure is a life-threatening but treatable condition in which the heart cannot pump enough blood to match the needs of the body. The long-term condition affects approximately 1 million people in the UK - around half of patients will die within five years of diagnosis.
Dr Rajiv Sankaranarayanan, Consultant Cardiologist and Heart Failure Lead at LUHFT, said: “We are humbled and honoured to receive this recognition. The credit truly goes to each and every member of a large team of dedicated individuals, who share the same goal of providing the best care we can to our patients so we can beat heart failure.
“We are also grateful to patients and their carers who have welcomed the use of technology to aid management of their condition. Early diagnosis as well as initiation of life saving treatment through awareness of the BEATHF campaign (Breathless, Exhaustion, Ankle swelling, Time for a simple blood test).”