Innovative Project Saves More Than 400 Hours Of Nursing Time, Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals Trust, England

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 20 Jan 2009 - 1:00 PDT

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An innovative project which empowers hospital staff to examine and change the way they run the ward has released more than 400 extra hours of nursing time to devote to patients. The "Releasing Time to Care: Productive Ward Programme" is a national project run by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement and provides a range of structured modules for staff to follow to make improvements. The aim is to redesign the core tasks taking place on a ward to help staff organise care better and have more time with patients.

The Children's Ward and Ward D18 were chosen to pilot the programme at New Cross Hospital and, along with 10 other wards who have subsequently taken part, a total of 407 hours of nursing time has been released, and staff have saved more than £30,000 as a result of the project.

Ward staff took on responsibility for examining all the practices and procedures carried out daily and looked at ways to improve them and make them more efficient.

As well as the efficiencies in running the wards, the staff have also highlighted improvements to help fight infection in the hospital and New Cross is the only hospital in the region to trial Bed Side Patient Safety Symbols which will highlight issues immediately to staff such as, if a patient is at risk from falling, if they have any dietary issues, etc..

The Children's Ward staff identified several store rooms which were being used inefficiently and carried out a complete stock review. As a result, they saved money and released one of the stock rooms which was transformed into a chill-out room for sick children.

On D16 the ward staff identified they were walking a long distance to get the linen store room so decided to move it, saving 96 hours per year of nurses time, which had been spent walking up and down to get linen.

The pilot has proved so successful, West Midlands Strategic Health Authority has provided £100,000 of funding to ensure it can continue across the hospital. A further 10 wards across the hospital are now going through the same process and the money will be used to fund extra posts to help support the project through 2009/2010.

Clare Nash, Productive Ward Project Manager, said: "The project has proved very successful already and it has only been going for six months. I am now working with 10 wards across the hospital and we are going to extend it to all in-patient wards by next December.

"It is very empowering for the staff and increases their morale as it brings the ward team together to take ownership of their ward and how it is run. It makes them realise they can run it better and can make a real difference to the hospital, to patient care and patient safety." Clare has been asked to share the Trust's success with other hospitals across the region, as well as speaking at national events and conferences.

Source
Claudine Weeks, Communications Manager
The Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals Trust, Wolverhampton, WV10 6BR.
England
http://www.rwh-tr.nhs.uk

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