Our team on the Surgical Assessment Unit and Surgical Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary have received a recognition award from NHS England and Improvement (NHSEI) and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement for achieving level 1 of the Always Events® programme.
SDEC is a service for surgical patients who need urgent review without admission or the need to attend A&E.
Ward managers Emma Armitage and Frances Howland, pictured, said: “Always Events are defined as ‘aspects of the patient experience that should always occur when patients interact with healthcare professionals and the health care delivery system’.
“We led the project under the supervision of Lorraine Wolfenden from NHSEI. We talked to patients about what was important to them whilst they were on the unit, using questionnaires, a graffiti board and even undercover patients! The clear message was that it was important for patients to be kept informed, something we weren't doing very well prior to the project. So, using their feedback, we created our Always Event statement which is ‘I will always feel up to date with the progress of my care’.
“We worked with colleagues to look at the most effective way of achieving this and continued to talk to patients too. The last set of data showed that 97% of the patients we asked understood their plan of care, showing that we had achieved our target, which has also carried through to our Friends and Family Test feedback.
“This wasn't the easiest of projects and took us almost two years to complete, but we are so proud of what we have achieved.”