West Midlands - Excellence In Care

Quality is defined as ‘the standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something.’ The main focus of the Trust’s Quality team over the next 18 months is to continue working with colleagues as we strive for excellence in care. The Clinical Systems Framework (CSF) is our overarching strategy and our workstreams are aligned to the ‘Excellence in Care’ section of the CSF. We are currently working on: Nursing documentation We introduced a revised: • Patient risk assessment • Admission details • Initial assessment. We also piloted an intervention chart devised by our Tissue Viability colleagues at the end of March 2021. We are also developing and revising other documents as we aim to streamline documentation whilst ensuring it is individualised for our patients.

May 2022

‘The Wolves Way’ accreditation

This accreditation is our patient-first approach. Organisations that have introduced accreditation schemes have been shown to improve the quality of patient care, along with increasing pride within teams in terms of how they feel about their service. We have been scoping accreditation models within other NHS Trusts and have identified a pilot ward. The next phase will be an options appraisal to be presented to staff and explored through focus groups. This will inform what the ‘The Wolves Way’ model here at RWT will look like. This will be implemented over the next 18 months.

Deteriorating Patient and Sepsis

We have been reviewing the data from Vitals observations to generate a new report for observations on time and sepsis screening. Pilot wards within the Trust are trialling new interventions which include reviewing vitals clinical for when observations are due and reviewing the frequency of observations carried out.

May 2022 41

Medication safety

Working closely with our pharmacy colleagues and Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) team, we have developed a project brief for critical medications. Critical medications are drugs that should never be omitted or delayed. Our project has led to the development of a pocket guide to increase awareness of which medications are grouped as critical. To monitor progress, our pharmacy colleagues have developed a missed medications report which will be available for staff shortly with the aim of having the data available on In Phase

Nutrition and hydration on inpatient wards

The food and drink consumed is so important for our patients and should be viewed as a fuel to aid recovery whilst in hospital. Poor nutrition and hydration can increase the risk of falls, pressure ulcers, urinary tract infections and impair cognitive function. We have added the dietary requirement and nutrition care plan to our nursing documentation along with an oral health assessment.

May 2022

We have developed a nutrition strategy and are working closely with our dietetics team and our colleagues at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust for the development of a Nutrition and Hydration Ambition. We have piloted a hydration assessment, revised fluid balance and a hydration chart on three wards at RWT and we are starting the evaluation phase. The food chart has been redesigned and is ready to pilot, with the aim of highlighting when patients are not eating adequate amounts.