March 17, 2011 10.10 am This story is over 155 months old

Hospital takes time to improve care

More efficiency: Lincoln County Hospital is trying to make junior doctors more efficient.

Lincoln County Hospital has created a new project to improve patient safety and junior doctors’ efficiency.

The Releasing Medical Time to Improve Patient Safety project aims to re-organise junior doctors’ daily tasks in order to free up more time for patient care.

It was found that junior doctors needed to improve their administration processes, handover, ward rounds and medication prescribing.

The project is funded by a Regional Innovation Grant, and will also be rolled out to other county hospitals if successful in the future.

At present, the project is being carried out on two of the hospital wards, Hatton Ward and Marshall Ward, and will be spread gradually over six other wards.

One of the first areas in the hospital to see changes was the phlebotomy service.

Clinical Line Manager Sister Nicky Newton said: “We have a small team of clinical support workers to cover 22 ward areas.

“The project has allowed us to examine our ways of working and make appropriate changes to become more efficient.

“This will hopefully enhance the service provided, support the junior doctors and improve patient care.

“We have negotiated the use of ward procedure trolleys for the clinical support workers to use on their rounds. This has enabled them to perform the service more efficiently.”

Racks for storing blood requests were also introduced to help junior doctors and clinic workers identify blood tests quicker, saving on duplicate forms.

Clinical Improvement Facilitator Audrey Milner said: “The aim is to make changes to the processes that junior doctors use, to improve patient safety and to free up more of their time to dedicate to direct patient care.

“Streamlining their processes and removing duplication should make a huge difference.”

Source: ULHT | Photo: Chandra Marsono