INVESTNET
PROJECT
Improving Patient Experience Times in the Emergency Department St. Luke’s General Hospital
TEAM:
Ms Brid Crennan, ADON Patient Flow; Ms Eileen Joyce, ADON Acute Floor; Ms Emer Tyrell, CNM3 Acute Floor; Ms Kate Walsh, Grainne Nestor CNM3 Bed Manager; Ms Helen Roche Unscheduled Care Lead; ED Consultants David Maritz, Eilis Dunning, Bronwen Roman and Sophia Tribelhorn; CNM2 Theresa O Donnell, Aine Williams, Norma Bergin, Denise Gavin, Leigh McMorran, Margaret Hynes ,Sinead Doherty; Evelyn Mc Donald Transport Coordinator, IEHG; Unscheduled Care IEHG Lead Denise Roxburgh.
LOCATION:
St Luke’s General Hospital Carlow-Kilkenny, Co. Kilkenny
THE PROBLEM:
This project sought to address the patient flow through the ED in order to improve patient experience times. The Patient Flow Department had undergone change which resulted in a positive TrolleyGAR reduction of 56%. Despite this, the ED 6/9hr PET remained outside of national KPI’s. An ED whiteboard system was manually updated by the site lead, this information was not in real time and easily deleted. Data was not stored and was dependent on the availability of the shift lead CNM2 to update. A previous acute floor Rapid Improvement Event (RIE) had identified the need for additional MDT huddles at specific time stamps in the 24 hours
THE SOLUTION:
It was identified by a MDT working group the need to introduce more structured time stamp huddles throughout the 24 hours. A point of care data collection record sheet was developed from which a strategic care plan is implemented to address challenges identified, including rostering, suitable staff availability diagnostic, patient transfers to inpatient beds. Key attendees included: Consultants, Nursing Staff, ADON Patient Flow, ADON Acute Floor, HCA, GEMS representative and Ward Clerk. The data was reviewed by the ADON PT Flow on a daily and weekly basis and any emerging trends identified and solutions were bought to the main huddle at 9am on a daily basis. System View was introduced to the ED on 26/07/24 with access granted to key stakeholders. This provides the shift leader and lead consultant with real time activity in the ED reviewing daily PET to identify/resolve issues.
BENEFITS:
Significant 10% improvement in the 6-hour PET time and 4% improvement in the 9-hour PET on the non-admitted patients. 4% improvement in 6-hour PET and 5% in the 9-hour PET in Admitted patients in the three months since the project began. The MDT point of care huddles are excellent forums for disseminating information to each discipline thus emerging trends are identified and solutions sought in a timely manner benefiting both the patient and providing staff satisfaction. SystemView IT provides real time activity to the ED Consultants and CNM2 of the current situation in the ED to monitor activity and address issues accordingly improving clinical outcomes and efficiencies.
