2020 Health Innovation Awards: Winners Announced

A project to improve the quality of life for people who take the antipsychotic drug clozapine has topped the 2020 Nelson Marlborough Health Innovation Awards.

The awards celebrate initiatives that make a positive difference to patient and consumer care across the Nelson Marlborough region.

The Equally Well: Improving cardio-metabolic screening and quality of life for clients on clozapine project aims to improve mental health patients’ physical health.

Here is how NMH Quality Improvement Advisor Jen Hassloch describes her team’s ‘Equally Well’ project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E75FzVTI6UU&feature=youtu.be

There were 30 entries this year from across the healthcare sector and Nelson Marlborough District Health Board Chair, and judge, Jenny Black says they all showed innovation and ‘people thinking outside the square, thinking of their clients first, and improving quality’.

“The Equally Well project was a deserving winner of the Darcy Christopher Overall Excellence Award. The project is totally patient-centred and I look forward to seeing this approach become regular occurrence across Te Tauihu,” Jenny Black says.

The winning project team say the $3000 prize money will go toward creating a mobile screening kit which would enable cardio-metabolic screening for people prescribed clozapine in Motueka, Golden Bay and the wider Nelson region.

Nelson Marlborough District Health Board member and judge, Dr Brigid Forrest commended all the entrants and acknowledged the tremendous effort taken to drive quality improvement changes across the region.

“What great staff we have. They are prepared to think differently, see a problem and own it - observe a situation and think about it,” Dr Forrest says.

“They can take a paper or an idea from a conference or journal, or trip somewhere and develop or extrapolate it – and all this on top of their day-to-day work commitments.”

Nelson Marlborough Health Chief Executive Peter Bramley paid also tribute to everyone involved in the projects.

“I would also like to acknowledge the fact that the people behind these projects are busy and often stretched in their daily jobs, yet when they notice something that could be improved, they are curious enough to ask questions and then work on a solution,” he says.

“We applaud them all for their innovation and commitment to improving the patient experience.”

The Darcy Christopher Excellence Award winner receives $3000 and the Highly Commended and Best Poster Awards winners receive $1000 each; this money goes towards spreading the projects.

The Winners of the 2020 Health Innovation Awards

• The Darcy Christopher Excellence Award:
• Equally Well: Improving cardio-metabolic screening and quality of life for clients on Clozapine (Helen Lynch, Jocy Wood, Rebecca Lukey, Jen Hassloch)
• Highly Commended Award:
• Hapū Wānanga, kaupapa Maori pregnancy and parenting programme (Te Waka Hauora - Maori Health and Vulnerable Populations unit)
• Best Poster Award:
• Health needs of Recognised Seasonal Employment (RSE) workers in Marlborough (Lisa Blaker, Simone Zillwood, Hazel Faulkner)

HIA category winners:

• He Tāngata/The People (An emphasis on a consumer focus)
• Community Pharmacists Improving Healthcare for a Vulnerable Population (Megan Peters, Deidre Magee, Rebecca Lukey, AS (consumer))
• Healthy Communities (The results have a ripple effect into our community)
• Living fully and free of falls: in the Nelson Marlborough community (Kate West, Deidre Crichton)
• Top of the South (Multiple stakeholders involved in dialogue/korero)
• Getting "Spotty" for vision (Jacqui Hitchcock, Jill Clendon, Janice Howard, Paula Murray)
• Green & Wise is the new gold (Environmental sustainability or Choosing Wisely enables consumers to understand their healthcare options)
• Putting the Informed back in Informed Consent (Older adult risk assessment in Cardiology) (Rebecca Eddington)
• Fast, Simple, Bold (Where a little idea just grew)
• Roopu Tane Kotahi Rau + (Lewis Boyles, Mamae Elkington, Amanda Inwood)
• Growing a seedling (Where an improvement framework has been applied)
• Improving access to child and adolescent mental health services (Emma Williams)

About the Health Innovation Awards

The awards are designed to inspire innovation and showcase quality improvements, initiatives or programmes in health service and delivery. They are open to any employee of Nelson Marlborough Health or other healthcare related providers in the region.

The 2020 Health Innovation Awards judges:

Jenny Black: Nelson Marlborough District Health Board (NMHDB) Chair

Dr Brigid Forrest: Nelson Marlborough District Health Board member

Shelley Shea: Models of Care clinical co-lead, and Clinical Nurse Specialist Cancer Care Coordination

The Darcy Christopher Award (overall winner)
The winner of the overall excellence award recognising innovation across Nelson Marlborough Health will receive the Darcy Christopher Award.

This award has been made possible by funds from the Darcy Christopher Trust, distributed through the Nelson Marlborough Health Care Foundation.

Flight Lieutenant Darcy Christopher worked as a training instructor for the RNZAF at Harewood, Christchurch, during the war. After spending much of his life in the top of the South Island, he created the Darcy Christopher Trust to allocate his estate to a number of public and community organisations; Nelson Marlborough Health is one of the recipients.

For more information please see our website.

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