Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust Quality Account 2016-2017

We made 25 submissions of QI work carried out by our junior doctors which were accepted for the
2017 International Forum on Quality & Safety in Healthcare.
More recently we have had 12 submissions accepted for presentation at the Patient Safety
Congress:
Introducing a ’10 Minute Conversation’ – Improving Communication within the Adult
Cardiac Arrest Team
Improving Nursing Knowledge of Acute Kidney Injury
Reducing the risks associated with blood transfusion: the experience of implementing
patient blood management at Northampton General Hospital
Easing the stress of rotation through the development of the Dr Toolbox mobile app and the
introduction of a formal handover
Improving Access to Emergency Protocols
Improvement of Service Provision through the Introduction of Gynaecology Emergency
Bags at Northampton General Hospital
Improving intravenous Fluid Prescribing
Learning from Errors - A Multi-disciplinary Approach within the Simulation Suite
Improving the Efficiency of the Administration of Medication on an Acute Medical Ward
Introducing Point of Care Simulations at Northampton General Hospital
Improving the disposal of sharps
Improving VTE re-assessment compliance
This work comes from across the multidisciplinary team and reflects the desire of all of our staff to
seek innovative ways of improving the care we provide. Using this approach, we have improved
the care for more elderly patients by making our Accident & Emergency Department “frail friendly”
and improving the skills of our staff in Geriatric Emergency Medicine (GEM).
GEM in our A&E
We organised multidisciplinary GEM training on a bi-monthly basis and targeted teaching for
specific groups e.g. our non-clinical staff.
To make our clinical area more homely and calming we redecorated the four quietest bays and
prioritised them for those with cognitive impairment and frailty with pastel colours. Specialised
equipment such as speech amplifiers for those with hearing problems are also readily available.
The nursing ratios are higher than for other Majors bays with 1 nurse and 1 healthcare assistant to
5 cubicles.
We have developed a number of specially designed care pathways for our GEM patients:
Cognitive Impairment
Falls Care Bundle
Trauma Care
Since starting this programme our cognitive assessments have improved from 11-52% over 16
months. The Falls Bundle has improved the quality of falls assessments. In the year after the
introduction of these changes, our complaints relating to the care of patients over 75 years of age
fell by 34%.
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