Case studies

A pilot project which involves closely monitoring the long term conditions of care home residents is having great results.

New dental project aims to put a smile on patients’ faces A quality improvement project is aiming to reduce wait times, ensure patients receive the right services and improve patient experience across our dental services. A review of routine appointment wait times at more than 25 sites identified that there was a wide variation between

An in-depth look at staff skills took place in urgent care in east Kent, with the aim of making improvements – for the workforce and for patients. This resulted in the creation of a new training programme for healthcare assistants (HCAs), which includes: a five day training course taken over six months a work handbook

A quality improvement project at Hawkhurst Community Hospital is looking at smarter ways of working. Led by Ward Matron Jane Browning, the ward team is trialling new ways of running shifts – for efficiency, to improve the patient experience and to ensure the health and wellbeing of colleagues. Jane said: “I took time to slow

Assessing and treating patients with venous leg ulcers more quickly, efficiently and with greater clinical outcomes is the aim of a project which our Tissue Viability Team has got underway. A Doppler assessment is often carried out with these patients to rule out peripheral arterial disease, a condition affecting the arteries.  This takes 40 minutes

Two podiatric day surgery quality improvement projects have resulted in fewer cancelled operations and a reduction in the risk of post-operative infections. The team’s blood pressure project and their subsequent blood glucose project have resulted in benefits to both patients and the department. And due to their success they are now embarking on a third

A quality improvement project is underway to see if heart patients would benefit from group sessions to help them with their condition. It is being led by a lead cardiac nurse in east Kent, Paul Whyte, who is working on the project with the British Heart Foundation, the Health Science Network and colleagues across Kent,

Ambrose Nwodoh has nearly completed his QSIR Practitioners course and already has a quality improvement project planned. He is aiming to use the quality improvement tools and techniques to help in the procurement of a new electronic patient records system. Ambrose, a Community Information System (CIS) trainer, said: “The QSIR course has been wonderful.  I’ve