The West of England AHSN Regional Programme to improve the reliability of recognition and response to the deteriorating patient has been shortlisted for an HSJ Patient Safety Award, in the Deteriorating Patients & Rapid Response Systems category.
The aim of this project was to implement the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) across the healthcare system. NEWS is used with acutely unwell patients to standardise communication and improve recognition and response to the deteriorating patient from the community into acute care. The West of England AHSN was the first area to adopt a regional approach to the standardisation of acute illness severity. Since then NEWS has been recommended by NICE and NCEPOD to aid early identification of sepsis.
This collaborative project has been completed with partners across the system to implement NEWS across every healthcare setting. As a result we have now started to see a reduction in mortality for patients who are suspected of having sepsis. The West of England now has the lowest mortality in England in this patient group following the implementation of system wide change.
Next steps
The final round of judging begins on Friday 18th May, where the team will present the entry to a panel of judges. The winners will then be announced at the HSJ Patient Safety Awards in Manchester on 9 July.
Congratulations to all involved in the project who have contributed to the systematic improvement of patient safety.
Read more about our work with deteriorating patients
Posted on April 23, 2018
