PHYSICIAN ASSOCIATES
ROLE MODELLING
PA School at SASH By Rachel Forbes-Pyman
A powerful form of education By Dr Sarah Rafferty
P.4
P.8
PLUS: Written by healthcare professionals for healthcare professionals
• C-diff – root cause analysis and lessons learned P.3 • Improving hip fracture care P.6 • Datix trigger lists P.7 • End of life care – everyone’s responsibility? P.8
Vol.2 Issue 1 2016
Embracing innovation and culture change to transform patient care By Dr Kathy McLean Medical director NHS Improvement
O
n 16 July 2015 Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced our ground-breaking NHS partnership with US based Virginia Mason Institute (VMI). I am delighted to be part of this programme in which VMI is mentoring five NHS hospital trusts over five years.
In particular, SASH demonstrated that they had the full commitment of the Trust Board to adopt the new methodology, a robust learning culture and showed how they had benefitted from knowledge transfer from previous programmes of work.
Who is VMI? In 2002, Virginia Mason Medical Centre, Seattle, There was a huge amount of interest from USA, embarked on a trusts all over the country who wanted to system-wide programme part of this. Surrey and Sussex Healthcare to change the way it NHS Trust (SASH) and other trusts delivers healthcare and underwent a rigorous selection process in the process improve before being chosen patient safety to participate in the and quality. programme. The four It did so by other selected trusts are “Perhaps more adopting Barking, Havering and than ever we need principles Redbridge University of the Toyota Production Hospitals Trust; Leeds System (TPS) and to adapt, innovate Teaching Hospitals creating the Virginia and embrace Trust; University Mason Production System Hospitals Coventry and culture change to (VMPS). Their journey Warwickshire NHS of improvement was improve patient Trust and Shrewsbury accelerated by a preventable and Telford Hospitals patient death which was care.” NHS Trust. During the investigated and from which selection process all five the learning was shared trusts were required to publically. The management demonstrate a culture that is open to new and clinical workforce committed to the approaches and a willingness to change goal of this never happening again. The the status quo.
hospital committed to an approach that delivered ‘defect-free’ patient pathways, meaning that where possible clinical care was standardised and patients were pulled along care pathways in an efficient and patient focussed way. Virginia Mason subsequently had an overwhelming number of requests from other healthcare providers for staff to share their experience and knowledge in applying lean principles, and in particular VMPS, into healthcare. In response, Virginia Mason Institute Continued page 2