Canterbury DHB Quality And Innovation Awards

Canterbury District Health Board Quality And Innovation Awards 2004

A project on reducing over-sedation in critically ill patients has won the Supreme Award in the second annual Canterbury District Health Board Quality and Innovation Awards. Designed to recognise and publicly acknowledge the excellent quality, innovation and improvement initiatives generated by Canterbury DHB staff and contracted providers, the awards were announced this afternoon.

A total of 22 projects were entered in the 2004 awards, sponsored by the Canterbury DHB’s Quality and Patient Safety Council, 18 in the Hospital and Specialist Services category, and four in the Community and Contracted Provider category.

The Supreme Award went to Dr Geoff Shaw, Kathryn Greenfield and Richard Dove from Christchurch Hospital’s Intensive Care Department and Medical Physics and Bioengineering Department.

The team drew together clinical and engineering skills to develop and implement a simple standardised method of achieving a satisfactory level of sedation which provides patient benefits, nursing benefits and cost savings.

The same project also took first equal prize in the Hospital and Specialist Services Award along with another Christchurch Hospital project by Alan Bavis and Brendon Groufsky called the Purpose and Goals for Energy Management.

From the hospital’s Maintenance and Engineering Department, these two men devised a plan to ensure the needs of patients, staff and stakeholders were met in a sustainable manner at the least cost to Christchurch Hospital and with the lowest impact on the environment. Presenting the awards, the CDHB’s Chief Executive Jean O’Callaghan said the two awards were wonderful examples of excellence in innovation.

‘All the entries this year have been outstanding,’ she said. ‘The judges were very impressed with the calibre and the quality of the projects. They are wonderful examples of the creative, innovative work being achieved not only within the CDHB but within public health and the organisations funded by the DHB to provide health services in Canterbury.’

The Hospital and Specialist Services Runner-up award went to a project called Aiming for Safety and Efficiency in the Management of Chest Pain. It was undertaken by Wendy Cuthill, Calum Young, Heather Trew, Ann Young and Hamid Ikram and aimed to safely decrease the average length of stay for patients assessed as having chest pain of a non-cardiac cause.

Following a six-month trial period it was found that the average length of stay had been reduced from 39.4 hours to 22.3 hours.

The Chest Pain Assessment Unit is now an integral part of the Cardiology Department at Christchurch Hospital.

Raewyn Jenkins and Jill Gillespie from the Nurse Maude Association won the Community and Contracted Provider Award with their project on Palliative Care Education for Health Carers.

Their project has resulted in a course, already attended by 281 carers, who are responsible for hands-on care of terminally ill and dying patients. The Highly Commended Shield was awarded for a Discharge Letter Process Review, a project undertaken by Lyn Clark, Clerical Supervisor, General Medicine. The project looked at ways of speeding up patient discharge letters to GPs and has resulted in significantly improved timeframes.

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