Two new evidence-based programmes are to be rolled out across the West of England.
Following our ‘Evidence into Practice’ Call in March we’re delighted to announce two new adoption and spread projects. The first project is SHarED (Supporting High impact users to Emergency Departments), which has been developed by University Hospitals Bristol Emergency Department. The second is a perinatal care bundle consisting of a number of evidence-based interventions aimed at reducing brain injury and death in preterm babies.
Clare Evans, Deputy Director of Service and System Transformation and Head of Adoption & Spread commented;
“We had some great submission to our Evidence into Practice call, highlighting some fantastic work from around our region. I’m really excited by the two projects we have chosen. They are both based on strong evidence, and have the potential to make a real impact on patient outcomes. Spreading evidence-based improvements like this is one of the things we do best as AHSN especially when we get to work with great ideas like these.”
The Evidence into Practice Challenge 2019 was an open call to healthcare professionals in the West of England with an evidence-based idea for an initiative or project that will improve healthcare. The call led to twenty applications from individuals across our region. Applicants were asked for specific research or evidence that suggested improvement in the quality of patient care. Following presentations from seven shortlisted projects, two were selected as adoption and spread projects across the West of England.
SHarED (Supporting High impact users to Emergency Departments) is a project put forward by Dr Becky Thorpe and the team at University Hospitals Bristol. The initiative has been running for five years now and has achieved great success in reducing attendances to the Emergency Department (ED) as well as supporting users to seek healthcare and support in a more appropriate way. Through multi-agency case management of those who attend ED more than 20 times per year there has been an 80% reduction in attendances and a 30% reduction in all patients with mental health problems. The financial savings from attendance and admission tariffs associated with the service are £900k per year. A Project Steering Board has been created and all acute Trusts in the region are invited to join this improvement work. A workshop is being run on 12th December for relevant Emergency Department staff, for more information click here.
The perinatal care bundle has been developed in collaboration between University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) and Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (GWH), following the merger of two Evidence Into Practice applications both aimed at proactively managing the risk of brain injury and death in preterm babies. It was put forward by Reader in Neonatology Karen Luyt and Consultant Paediatrician & Neonatologist Sarah Bates. Reducing newborn brain injury is highlighted as a priority in The NHS long term plan. Currently, the NHS is not on track to meet the target reductions of 25% by 2020, and 50% by 2025. The West of England AHSN hopes to engage every maternity and neonatal unit and parent groups in the region to co-design, produce and test the bundle to improve outcomes for preterm babies born before 32 weeks gestation.
Posted on November 14, 2019
