New Health Sector

Note from Ruth Evans

We have just held the first of our best practice events at last year’s overall PEN national Award Winner Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust to celebrate the incredible work being done to improve children’s and young people’s experience.

A huge thank you to everyone involved, this was an absolutely incredible and inspiring day!

We are already planning our next best practice event – watch this space for further news!

Our survey about C&YP’s experience is now closed.  This is now being collated into a report which focusses on children and young people and we will share the report when it is ready.  We would like to take this opportunity to thank you to everyone who took the time to contribute – we have had a superb response.

As always please do let us have your feedback and comments, and of course your news!

Technology

Holograms and hygiene – the virtual nurse

Funding Opportunity

Open for application: Shine innovation programme with up to £75k funding to improve quality in healthcare

The Health Foundation is seeking examples of smart ideas to develop and test that could improve healthcare by achieving one of the following:

• Supporting people to take a more active role in their own health and care.
• Improving the safety of patient care.
• Improving quality while reducing costs.

Visit www.health.org.uk/shine.

Deadline: 12 noon Friday 25 October 2013.

Healthcare at Home – Recovery at Home Service (Supported Discharge)

Healthcare at Home were Highly Commended in the Continuity of Care category at the 2012 PEN National Awards for their “Recovery at Home” service. These community-based, multi-disciplinary services provide care in the patient’s home allowing safe, early discharge from hospital. Run in conjunction with the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust the service supports the early discharge of patients, offering them homecare as an alternative to continued hospital stay.

The projects objectives were as follows:

• To give patients greater choice in their care
• To reduce the average length of stay for patients in hospital
• To provide a robust and sustainable model of care

The RaH service provides care to approx. 1.3 million people living in Southampton and South Hampshire. It identifies those patients who could benefit from receiving treatment at home, and helps them to leave hospital and get better quicker. The RaH service does not replace existing community service provision but offer acute and sometimes complex care to patients who remain under the clinical supervision of the Trust until discharged.

A new film about our Recovery at Home service in Southampton is now available to view on our YouTube Channel. Either click here or go to YouTube and type our channel name healthcareathome.

Healthcare at Home reduces long stays in hospital by providing the support package and resources to ensure a far quicker and easier discharge. Medical patient groups may include respiratory, cardiovascular (stable), diabetes, general medicine and patients requiring anticoagulant or antibiotic therapy. Surgical patient groups may include general surgery, orthopaedics and neuro-surgery.

Key features include:

• A local, multi-disciplinary clinical team consisting of specialist nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, healthcare assistants and family liaison co-ordinators.
• Fully-qualified, specialist nurses providing personalised care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• Proactive team work with local providers and multi-disciplinary teams to agree plan of care.
• Pre-discharge assessment to ascertain patient need and suitability for home treatment, design and co-ordinate care package, including therapies and equipment.
• Collaborative planning and daily meetings with local clinicians and management.
• A patient advocacy service by liaising with local authorities and other agencies including housing benefits and grant applications.
• A rapid response team for clinical assessment and patient visits, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The rapid response team was set up in order to alert staff to any concerns the patient had, preventing the need for emergency hospital admissions. Data collected to October 2012 showed that 97% of patients were very satisfied with the service, whilst 99% found it to be highly beneficial. At the time of submission 1,767 patients had been referred onto the service with 10,956 bed nights saved as a result.

Having treatment at home meant I could be discharged from hospital after a fortnight and continue being cared for by nurses at home. I had to be given antibiotics intravenously four times a day for four weeks, which was a bit disruptive to family life, but that was nothing compared to how disruptive my being in hospital five miles away would have been for my partner, with a new baby to care for.

Paul Patient