Improving patient care the focus of Annual Quality Awards

17 December 2018

For immediate release

Improving patient care the focus of Annual Quality Awards

The recent Canterbury Health System Quality Improvement and Innovation Awards recognised and showcased how changes have been made to improve the quality of health care.

Chief Executive David Meates said he was excited by the improvements happening in the Canterbury Health System.

“These annual awards are an important event on our health system calendar, and sharing and celebrating the teams’ successes is so important,” he said.

“This year, 48 teams from across the Canterbury Health System entered the Awards, on topics ranging from valuing patients’ time by reducing appointment and waiting times and changing radiology techniques to make the patients’ experience better, right through to improving mental health and enhancing palliative care.

“Eleven awards were presented, with the Supreme Award, going to the team behind the Focus on eyes: Delivering patient treatment on timeproject, which addressed concerns about overdue national Ophthalmology follow-up times for people diagnosed with eye disease,” David Meates said.

Eye Service Manager Ali Watkins says, “starting in June 2017, the Canterbury Eye Service held more than 100 outpatient clinics, including evenings, weekends and during last year’s Christmas break. They also reviewed and improved the quality of the Eye Service’s data. The overall result was that the team reduced the overdue Ophthalmology follow-up waiting list of 3,453 patients down to 719 in one year.”

The Eye Service’s waiting list project also won the Improved Quality, Safety and Experience of Care Award for improving its service to patients.

“Every discipline within the Service came together for this project. In addition, Canterbury DHB’s Decision Support team helped design a data reporting tool that was meaningful for our team what gets measured gets changed. The project led us to look beyond our waitlist and have greater scrutiny of the whole Service.

“Looking to improve one area led to looking to improve other areas too,” Ali says.

To view the full list of the award categories, and some videos made by the winners and runners-up, visit the Canterbury Health System Quality Improvement Showcase 2018 page.

ENDS

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