Chelsea and Westminster Hospital collects two BMJ Improving Health Awards

Chelsea and Westminster’s Medicines @ Discharge (M@D) and Dean Street at Home projects both won awards at the 2013 BMJ Improving Health Awards ceremony, which was held in London on Thursday 9 May.

Chelsea and Westminster's M@D project won the Improvement in Patient Safety award.

'Improving Medication Reconciliation at Discharge—Closing the Loop' project is a quality improvement initiative lead by a core team of Chelsea and Westminster patients, consultants and pharmacists and involves a wider multidisciplinary team. M@D is jointly supported by Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research (CLAHRC) North West London.

Poor communication about medication changes when patients leave hospital and move into the community care can cause significant harm. At Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, improvement in the quality of discharge information about medication changes has improved patient safety, reduced medication errors and improved patient experience.

Dean Street at Home, an HIV home testing service pioneered by 56 Dean Street, Chelsea and Westminster's HIV and sexual health clinic in Soho, won the Transforming Patient Care Using Technology award.

Dean Street at Home is a collaboration between 56 Dean Street, the social networking website Gaydar and the online medical service DrThom. 56 Dean was the first NHS clinic to offer HIV home testing.

Gaydar sends an instant message to 800 of its 120,000 registered users in the Zone 1 Travelcard area each day. Users complete an online pre-test discussion and are then offered a free HIV home testing kit from DrThom via the dedicated website.

Patients who test negative get a text message from DrThom giving them the good news while patients whose results indicate a possible positive are contacted directly by the expert team of health advisers at 56 Dean Street for further tests and advice.