Posted on: 30 January 2019
New Year’s resolutions abound as we move into the second year of Quality Improvement
Wow! January has almost been and gone already in what seems like the blink of an eye. Some of you will be resolutely sticking to the New Year’s resolutions you made at the start of the month, while others will have decided for better or worse to abandon them. Can we suggest that you make a resolution to involve service users and carers in your QI projects where at all possible? Did you know there is now a cohort of service users and carers that have received QI training and are ready and willing to be involved in your projects? More details later in this newsletter.
Wherever you are on CNWL’s QI journey there are opportunities to become more involved. For those of you just starting out, why not register for Bitesize QI, a half -ay training session outlining the key components of the Model for Improvement? You can now register for Bitesize QI on LDZ. Details of the training are available on the microsite www.qi.cnwl.nhs.uk. Alternatively, for those happy to go it alone, the IHI modules QI101-QI105 of the excellent online training will give you what you need to get your project started.
Life QI users
Here’s an update on numbers of live projects on Life QI .
- We now have 253 active projects on Life QI
- 930 staff have now registered on Life QI
- 28 QI projects have been completed on Life QI
You can see here that more of you have joined our Life QI community online:
‘Involve service users in quality improvement (QI) projects’ – former patient
Sandra Jayacodi, a former CNWL patient said working on projects to improve services turned her life around, after she was first diagnosed with mental health problems. “When I thought my world was about to close in on me, I saw hope in the form of quality improvement work on mental health. As a service user involved in various QI projects, policy making around mental health helped me find meaning in life,” she said.
She was giving the keynote presentation at the annual International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua) conference, held in Kuala Lumpur this year.
Sandra worked closely with our Recovery and Wellbeing College to share her story at the event.
The mask
“You can’t tell how much suffering is on the face that is smiling,” said Sandra at the event.
She appeared to have it all. She’d gotten married, had a beautiful daughter, practiced as a solicitor and had set up her own law firm. “I thought all was well but it was not. I was still wearing the mask. The mask covered what was going on in circles in my head over and over again, and when alone the pain was unbearable.”
Sandra was admitted to hospital for four months after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and psychosis.
“Following my admission, I lost the will to live. I lost my law firm, I was divorced, I was made bankrupt, my house was repossessed, and my psychiatrist signed me off as unfit to work. At one point I was even made homeless because estate agents wouldn’t rent me properties because my credit rating was bad,” she said.
“Fortunately enough I had a good therapist who worked with me. After a year into therapy she recommended I volunteer and do some recovery and wellbeing courses, where I learnt about coproduction and patient involvement in research. After completing the course I put my name down to be involved in research work. It was known as patient and public involvement.”
Valuable resource
It wasn’t easy at first, but Sandra’s involvement in improvement projects gave her confidence and eventually led to her first paid employment in 9 years. She’s since travelled the world sharing her story at conferences and mental health hospitals, including in Malaysia, Singapore and Berlin. She is involved in many projects in the UK too.
“I learnt how to take care of my physical health. I learnt what QI methodology is, I learnt about process mapping (which she presented on too at the conference). I learnt to make suggestions and challenge the team if implementation didn’t take place. I was not afraid of being vocal,” she said.
Sandra urged health care professionals to involve patients in any work to improve services.
“We are a valuable resource that you should not let go to waste. Get us involved in your improvement work. Support us, guide us, train us, educate us. You understand us better. You may say ‘I’m not paid for this,’ and ‘I don’t have time’ but it’s easier for us to ask you to spend extra time with us because you know us,”
“When you learn from us, it builds our confidence. When you appreciate what we do, it keeps us motivated. When you publish what we’ve contributed it makes us proud,” she said.
ISQua was established in 1985 with a vision to promote quality and safety in health care through international co-operation and collaboration.
See Sandra’s full presentation here (starting from 16:55)
Service users and carers trained in QI
There is now a cohort of a dozen or so service users and carers who have undergone (and helped develop!) QI training. If you are looking for someone to join your project we can help match you up.
Alternatively, if you’ve already identified someone to work with, we can provide them with a ‘QI taster’ training session, delivered by other service users or carers. Please let us know if you are interested in pursuing either of these options by contacting Lucy Palmer (Head of Patient and Carer Involvement).
Improving Care in Pharmacy Services - When Quality goes up, costs go down!
This month the Pharmacy Dispensary Team at St Charles Hospital shared their QI project to reduce the number of clozapine returns to the pharmacy department.
Nawal Arif, Lead Pharmacist of Operations at St Charles Dispensary, said “Medication waste is considered to be a big problem in most hospitals. It has been estimated £300 million of NHS prescribed medicines are wasted each year. Unwanted medication in hospital wards and Community Mental Health Teams are regularly returned to the pharmacy department so we thought we’d see if we could use QI and the Model for Improvement to reduce returns.”
Remembering the advice to start small, the team started with looking at one medication and set an aim to reduce clozapine returns by 15% over a 6 month period. They were successful and exceeded their aim. For staff this meant they were able to redirect their time and energy to other tasks including more time for patient facing work. This project has also resulted in £20 000 savings over a 6 month period. Congratulations to the project team and thank you for sharing your work.
You can watch their QI video below:
QI Tip of the month: Get to know your Divisional QI Clinical Lead!
Thinking of starting a QI project or have the gem of an idea that might translate into one? Then why not get in contact with your Divisional QI Clinical Lead? All our QI Clinical Leads have acquired in depth knowledge and experience of all things QI. They also know what the strategic priorities for their respective divisions are, and can therefore give you invaluable pointers on how to get things started.
Click here to find your Divisional QI Clinical Leads.