Directors’ Den Winners 2013

26 June 2013

Directors’ Den encourages staff to be innovative and suggest ways in which they can improve their own services—the winning entries are given funding to turn their ideas into reality.

Directors’ Den encourages staff to be innovative and suggest ways in which they can improve their own services—the winning entries are given funding to turn their ideas into reality.

A total of 31 applications were received for the second round of our staff initiative Directors’ Den, based on the TV series Dragons’ Den.

The winners, who will all receive funding to turn their idea into reality, are:

Assessment and delivery of training for staff around end of life care

Dr Sarah Cox, Consultant in Palliative Care

The Directors Den funding will be used to assess the current quality of end of life care and establish a training programme for staff. It is anticipated that this will include improving staff confidence and competence as well as communication skills.

The training would be designed to allow all staff dealing with dying adult patients the opportunity to learn about end of life care and communication around it. Targeted training would be designed for those staff and teams who care for dying patients more often.

Values based website videos

George Vasilopoulos, Web Communications and Graphic Design Manager, Alison Heeralall, Deputy Director of HR and Averil Lynch, Recruitment Manager

The Trust website is a perfect platform to communicate with patients, the public and GPs. On average, the hospital website has 80,000 visitors each month. The current videos on our website about the hospital and our services are dated.

The money from Directors’ Den will be used to update the main Trust film, create new videos about specific services and one film about working here, plus filming main events that take place at the Trust. This will help to improve patient experience by communicating information about the hospital to patients in a friendly, interesting way and help to attract and recruit staff who will demonstrate our Trust values.

Med Ebot

Mr Shane Duffy, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist

The Med Ebot is an initiative devised to improve team performance in medical emergencies, which was initially developed for the maternity emergency team for use during labour. The Med Ebot system is a tablet computer used by the team leader who co-ordinates the emergency team, together with a large monitor that shows how the team is performing and also alerts for action when required.

The Med Ebot not only provides a digital checklist for teams that prompts teams on the next step to ensure competence, it also helps to improve communication, situational awareness and team working. Its formation of the Med Ebot is a result of many years of monitoring and evaluation of teams in emergency settings. The use of the Med Ebot in maternity has improved the knowledge and practice of the emergency team. The Med Ebot incorporates the latest scientific and technological advances and the funding will be used to develop the prototype and expand the IT software and hardware to allow roll-out to other departments in the Trust.

Ponseti Clubfoot Administrative Tool and Database (CAD)

Denise Watson, Paediatric Orthopaedic Physiotherapist Ponseti Team Lead

The Chelsea and Westminster Ponseti Clinic is the largest clubfoot clinic in the South of England and therefore provides a data source for developing standards of practice. The Directors’ Den funding will allow the team to develop the administrative tool and database which can map clinical pathways and create an IT package, which allows continued monitoring and assessment of clinical practice that can be used at many healthcare centres nationally and internationally.

The tool will allow clinicians to easily capture and record data, which allows for audits and governance of practice. It will also mean less paperwork which in turn leads to more effective workflow and financial savings. Ultimately it will ensure that patients are receiving the best standards of care and parents will be able to see that their child is progressing and seeing improvements.

Young People’s Executive

Vanessa Sloane, Directorate Nurse, Paediatrics

The funding will be used to create a ‘Young People’s Executive’ made up of patients and their siblings aged 8-18 years old. The group will be made up of approximately 20 members run by a play specialist and will support with decision making within the Trust. They will be asked to assist with policies and discussions about pathway changes and developments in paediatrics. It is a model of patient involvement which has been successful in other Trusts, enabling staff to initiate change based on patient feedback and also giving young people a forum where they can learn to work together.