WeImprove Awards 2024: who won what?
Projects to revolutionise recovery times for stroke patients and boost safety in eye care were among the winners at the second annual WeImprove Awards.
Judges praised the "innovative approach" to stroke rehabilitation at Newham Hospital which now includes morning breakfast clubs and exercise classes.
Patients reported being happier and more active, helping to reduce their time spent in hospital.
The team secured the WeImprove Local Processes prize.
A campaign to cut the number of serious incidents at the Whipps Cross eye treatment centre won the WeImprove Patient Safety award.
The service have eliminated serious incidents in the department whilst increasing patient numbers by over 40%.
Held at the Royal College of Pathologists headquarters in Aldgate, the WeImprove Awards celebrate outstanding examples of quality improvement (QI) across Barts Health.
Over 100 nominations were submitted across seven categories, with 24 projects making the awards shortlist.
Other winners included the virtual wards team who have grown our hospital at home service to over 170 beds across several specialties.
They scooped the WeImprove Working across Systems award.
QI sees people and teams closest to an issue try to improve it using our WeImprove methodology.
Our progress has been amazing
Opening the awards, group director of improvement and transformation Chris Gordon said: “Our progress in the past 12 months has been amazing. Use of quality improvement is growing and growing."
Keynote speaker Dr Amar Shah, the first national clinical director for improvement at NHS England, told the packed crowd: “You are at the forefront of improvement in the NHS. The rest of the country is looking and learning at what you guys are doing.”
All our winners receive a WeImprove certificate and badge along with a sought-after glass trophy.
2024 WeImprove Awards shortlist and winners
- Bilingual and accessible medicines information (Newham)
- Equity in care: skin tone diversity education in pressure damage prevention (Whipps Cross)
- Patients perception of safety, equity implications and the safety incident response framework (The Royal London)
- Equity of access and experience for learning disabilities patients accessing obesity service (St Bartholomew’s)
Winner: Equity in care: skin tone diversity education in pressure damage prevention
WeImprove Local Processes
- Improving data in the paediatric intensive care at The Royal London
- Improving turnaround time of “to take away” discharge medications in The Royal London dispensary
- Revolutionising Recovery: The 24-Hour Stroke Rehabilitation Initiative (Newham)
Winner: Revolutionising Recovery: The 24-Hour Stroke Rehabilitation Initiative
The panel called out "good improvement work with a broad range of measurements". The project also recognised "the individual needs of patients".
WeImprove Patient Safety
- Collaborative working to reduce patient safety incidents in the Whipps Cross eye treatment centre
- Improving patient safety and experience in maternity at Newham Hospital
- Improving women’s experiences of induction of labour processes in a busy maternity department at The Royal London Hospital
- Neonatal Normothermia: Improving admission temperature for pre-term neonates admitted to Whipps Cross neonatal unit
Winner: Collaborative working to reduce patient safety incidents in the Whipps Cross eye treatment centre
Our expert panel valued "the huge amount of collaboration, with all professional groups involved" and said that "patient safety was a key driver".
WeImprove Staff Wellbeing
- 14th floor whiteboard and board round bundle implementation (The Royal London)
- Joy in work: a multi-disciplinary QI project to improve staff wellbeing in The Royal London Children’s hospital
- To provide a pleasant space to enjoy food and drink while working and support the effective implementation of health fresh food and vending machine supply choices for the theatre team (St Bartholomew’s)
Winner: Joy in work: a multi-disciplinary QI project to improve staff wellbeing in The Royal London Children’s hospital
Judges called it "a great example of how to engage staff to understand what they want, and working with them to deliver it".
WeImprove Sustainability
- Bleeding dry resources: reducing the number of routine coagulation screens sent (St Bartholomew’s)
- Improving the awareness of carbon emissions from nitrous oxide use for patients receiving inhalation sedation (The Royal London)
- Reducing plastic waste from ICU – a journey towards Green ICU (Newham)
Winner: Bleeding dry resources: reducing the number of routine coagulation screens sent (St Bartholomew’s)
The expert panel "were impressed with how the project analysed the processes within the problem and used data to drive improvements".
WeImprove Working across Systems
- Increasing elective capacity and activity, reduce wait times and improve outcomes for patients receiving treatment for intravitreal injections for macular conditions (Whipps Cross)
- Development of virtual wards across Barts Health (group support services and corporate development)
- Enhanced recovery after cardiac surgery (ERACS) at St Bartholomew’s
- The Royal London Hospital board round bundle
Winner: Development of virtual wards across Barts Health
The panel praised "a great project with system wide impact, a strong QI approach and patient engagement".
WeImprove Working in Partnership
- Developing a rotator cuff-related shoulder pain education workshop for musculoskeletal outpatients (Whipps Cross)
- Pathology central specimen reception flow improvement project (group support services and corporate development)
- Young adult diabetes pilot (The Royal London)
Winner: Pathology central specimen reception flow improvement project
Our experts said the project “provided a structured approach to solving a wicked problem.” The panel were also impressed by yits potential scalability.
Are you interested in quality improvement? Our FREE first steps in QI course is open to all Barts Health staff and is offered at locations across the group. Book now.
Pictured (from top to bottom): the Whipps Cross team that won with their skin tone diversity education project; the stroke rehab team pick up their WeImprove award; eye treatment centre staff celebrate their prize; staff members enjoy a photo during the awards; wellbeing award winners from The Royal London collect their prize.
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