The trust's IT and nursing staff have collaborated to produce Nursing Metrics, a monthly collection and presentation of data that enables nurses to benchmark their performance in key aspects of clinical care delivery across the organisation. Wards have been successful in raising their performance when measured against Nursing Metrics, signifying an improvement in the patient experience. Nursing Metrics have also enabled nurses to clearly identify serious local or trust wide issues and initiate a swift, targeted response to improve patient quality and safety.
This project, designed to reduce the number of DNAs (did not attends) for hospital appointments, constructed an algorithm based on factors including the patient's age and distance from the hospital. Patients most at risk of missing appointments were contacted to ensure that they were still planning to attend. DNA rates for diabetes clinics halved and a significant reduction was achieved for opthamology. Further roll-out of the system is planned.
The seamless integration of the two systems, K2MS Guardian and Athena Maternity system, provides a complete obstetric record from booking date through to immediate postnatal period. The system has also improved communication between the trust and child health unit by introducing a paperlite method of notifying births.