Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust Quality Account 2016-2017

We said we would:
Support and monitor the provision of safe care and reduction of harm through increasing the
number of Executive Safety rounds.
What we achieved:
What: Executives and Non-Executive Board Members will visit clinical and non-clinical
areas speaking with staff and patients.
Speaking with patients and their carers during the safety rounds provides a timely
opportunity to capture real time patient and carer feedback, capturing good
practice and areas for improvement.
Executive Safety rounds have been shown to have a positive effect on the safety
climate and are a promising tool to improve the broader construct of safety
culture.
How much:
Monthly as part of Trust Board Business.
In 2014/15 there were 40 Board to Ward visits.
The target set for 2015/16 was for a minimum of 48 executive safety visits. We
undertook to:
Monitor the number of areas visited per month.
Provide Divisional feedback via patient safety and quarterly report.
Demonstrate progress via improved safety climate results.
When:
Executive safety rounds have been in progress from January 2009. A revised
format was introduced in July 2012 to include all Executives and Non-Executive
Board Members to visit clinical and non-clinical areas as part of monthly Trust
Board Business.
Target date was April 2016 – March 2017 inclusive.
Outcome:
Where regular Board to Ward visits have occurred, the operational staff and
directorate management boards have acknowledged the benefit of senior leaders
regularly spending time with them. They welcome the opportunity to discuss the
safety issues which concern them and receiving feedback on action that would be
taken forward to address these.
The purpose of the safety round has allowed us to send a message of
commitment to a culture for change focused on patient safety.
When all executives commit to regular visits (walk rounds), it creates a shared
insight into organisational safety issues.
During 2016/17 180 executive safety rounds were completed:
20