Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust Quality Account 2016-2017

Red2Green
The Red2Green approach is a visual system to assist in identifying any time that does not
contribute to a patient’s journey whilst they are in hospital. A ‘green day is one where a patient has
had treatment or an investigation which will move them along their treatment plan. A ‘red’ day is
one where this has not happened and the time has not been used effectively. Our wards have
adopted the Red2Green approach to ensure that time in hospital is used as effectively as possible
and now make every effort to minimize ‘red’ days.
90 Day Discharge Collaborative
The aim of our 90 collaborative discharge work is to ensure that our ward processes are as
efficient as possible. We are reviewing processes on a number of our wards and making targeted
tests of change. In some of our clinical areas we have achieved a reduction in the length of stay for
our patients by as much as 50%. Once we have demonstrated that a practice or process change is
effective these are rolled out to other areas.
New Ways of Working
We are continuously seeking new or better ways of working. In the last year we have developed a
new medical model to increase senior medical capacity in the acute assessment areas. We have
also developed a ‘consultant of the week’ model in Oncology and Cardiology.
This has meant that our patients are seen more quickly be senior medical staff who are best
placed to quickly decide on the treatment plan. For patients that do not need to remain in hospital
we have been able to discharge them more quickly improving their experience of our services.
There have been changes to the way we work across the multidisciplinary team which ensure that
we can quickly get the right professional to see each patient every time.
Bringing staff together
Feedback from our staff is vitally important in helping us to deliver the best possible care for our
patients. We have a number of ways of getting feedback which includes the staff survey and the
Board to Ward visits which are described elsewhere in this account. During 2016/17 we introduced
several further meetings and engagement events to improve communication within the Trust and to
ensure that the views of staff could be heard and acted upon.
Compass Check
Our compass check events were informal meetings where representatives from across our
management team provided staff with a wide ranging update on the activity and progress within the
Trust during the last year. These have been well received with highly positive feedback.
Listen & Learn
The feedback from these meetings identified that there were specific of areas where our staff
would like to have more detailed information. In response we introduced Listen and Learn
meetings which to date have focused on:
Operations
Human Resources
Finance
Each of these meetings has been presented by the Director responsible for the area moving to a
‘Question Time’ style section chaired/hosted by the Chief Executive. These meetings have
produced a lively discussion and very positive feedback with requests for further events.
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