Annual Report and Accounts - The Great Western Hospital

of implementing the programme. Included in this number are Maternity, Neonatal Unit and the
Children’s Ward. The project is also being rolled out to the community Hospitals in Wiltshire. To
share expertise and enhance collaborative working, the community hospital wards will be supported
by a buddy system approach with a ward at the Great Western Hospital.
There are 11 modules of the programme that are designed to enable ward managers and their
teams to free up time to deliver direct patients’ care. Successful implementation of the programme
and embedding good practices is reliant on good multidisciplinary team working and outcome
measures are determined from patient’s experience, safety and clinical risks indicators.
The following outlines achievements since implementing the Productive Ward Programme:
• Patient status on glance boards has increased patient safety through better communication
amongst members of the Multidisciplinary Team. It has also contributed to a reduction in the
average length of stay by up to 2 days, demonstrating efficiency through the patients’
pathway.
• The introduction of standardised shift handover reduces clinical risk through better
communication of information that is essential to the seamless care of a patient throughout
their inpatient stay. There is ongoing work occurring to ensure that handovers are
embedded in all clinical areas and are working effectively to support the patient experience
and safety agenda.
• The introduction of a menu free approach has enabled patients to be more involved in
selecting their meal of choice on a daily basis. The other benefit is that food is served at the
right temperature because of the ability to serve meals in a timelier manner.
• The trialing of red tabs and poster campaign aimed at reducing interruptions to nurses’
during the administration of medication reduces medication incidents. This work is done in
collaboration with members of the pharmacy team.
• Patients’ privacy and dignity is enhanced by the introduction of ‘privacy pegs’. This involves
raising awareness of staff to consider the issues around maintaining privacy and dignity
within a hospital environment.
• The introduction of intentional rounding will support the delivery of holistic nursing care. It is
envisage that all wards including community hospitals will implement this concept through a
roll out programme.
• Innovative work such as the pilot of ‘water hydrant’ on Jupiter ward has been successful.
The hydrants support suitable patients in promoting their hydration and independence. The
project is currently being implemented on 4 other wards.
3.23 Examples
The Trust focuses on the patient by making improvement in their nutrition. The Trust aims to
reduce pressure ulcers; the number of our patients who fall and the incidence of Venous
Thromboembolism (VTE). In addition the Trust seeks to ensure that patients with dementia are
cared for in such a way that is suitable to their needs. These are just a few examples of focussing
on the patients.
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