RUH teams recognised for innovative patient improvements

Innovative projects introduced to improve the experience of patients visiting the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust have been celebrated at the hospital's annual Patient Experience Awards.

Held during Experience of Care Week, a national initiative celebrating the work taking place across health and social care to keep improving patient experience, the awards recognise those individuals and teams at the RUH that have gone the extra mile to make sure patients feel welcome and receive the highest quality care.

The winner of this year's top award was the Emergency Department Paediatric Team, which was nominated by Sarah Potter, Senior Sister and Joint Lead for the Children's Emergency Department, for its work in developing a dedicated children's emergency department to provide urgent care to some of the RUH's youngest patients.

The project has seen a separate area for children created within the hospital's main Emergency Department. It has been specially designed and decorated to make the Emergency Department less intimidating for young people and comes complete with wall-mounted play equipment for little ones as well as a Teen Room kitted out with a games console.

These physical improvements were supported with the recruitment of additional children's nurses and increased training for all Emergency Department staff.

Feedback from parents and carers has been overwhelmingly positive. One praised the new children's area as being 'calm and friendly', while another called it 'amazing…so child-friendly'. One parent said of the staff: "Their professionalism and care was nothing but outstanding."

Sarah said: "It feels amazing to be recognised as the whole team has worked really hard to make a difference, putting patient experience first.

"We know the environment we provide care in is really important, and younger patients have different needs to teens. We're so pleased we've been able to transform our space in a way that provides a better experience for young people at every age, and we're already talking about how we can make further improvements for the people we care for."

Other award winners were:

• Palliative Care team. Nominated by Leah Moyle, Palliative Support Worker, for its project to provide butterfly memory boxes and knitted hearts to the families of patients nearing end of life.
• Holistic Integrated Care of Ovarian Cancer (HICO) team. Nominated by Jonathan Frost, Consultant Gynaecological Oncologist, and Laura Davies, Engagement Lead (HICO), for improving health outcomes for older patients with ovarian cancer.
• Critical Care team. Nominated by Margi Jenkins, Critical Care Matron, and Ian Kerslake, Clinical Lead for Intensive Care, for the development of the Critical Care Follow-Up clinic, which identifies any ongoing needs or concerns that patients may have following their stay in the unit and provides them with access to support services.

RUH Chief Nurse Toni Lynch said: "We want patients at the RUH to feel safe, understood, cared for and welcome, we are continuously looking at ways to improve their experience.

"Across the Trust we encourage a culture of continuous improvement in everything we do and these awards demonstrate just some of the projects and improvements that have been introduced to benefit our patients.

"A huge congratulations to the award winners and everyone who was nominated for introducing such positive improvements for the people we care for."

ENDS

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