As part of our work to look at our services and make them better for staff and patients, we regularly hold Rapid Process Improvement Weeks (RPIW).

These started as part of our partnership with the Virginia Mason Institute, a renowned hospital in America which supports trusts like ours to make continuous improvements. We were one of just five trusts chosen to take part in the programme in the country.

Our most recent RPIW focused on how we discharge patients and send them home, looking at how we can get patients home earlier, which is better for them and allows us to look after other patients.

Read the fascinating account of our junior doctors, Luke Parker and James Lam (pictured), below.

“We weren’t certain which seemed more terrifying: the idea of leaving the care of our patients to someone else for a week, or of being involved with a rapid process improvement workshop!

“We had no real expectation of what we might be able to achieve, or how we might be able to do this – and retained a healthy degree of scepticism about what we initially viewed as outside interference in a complex and highly variable process. One of our biggest apprehensions was that the importance of patient safety would get lost amidst the focus on discharges.

“The first surprise was how keen the team was in recruiting the staff involved; from nurses, to pharmacists, to doctors, and of course a patient representative. The second was how, rather than dictating to us what we had to do, the focus was on empowering us to make the changes that we wanted to see.

“We found ourselves sharing rich and in-depth conversations with various members of our team that we had simply never had before – even with those we work with daily. It became almost immediately apparent that because we’re all so focused on service provision day-to-day, we never truly come together to question why things are done in the way that they are. By broadening our perspectives, and considering the roles and idiosyncrasies of all disciplines involved in the discharge process, we were able to identify huge areas we could improve.

“One of the major benefits was that we were closely adjoined to the ward team, so had a direct view of the improvements we were making with an immediate channel for feedback. This enabled us to study the effects of the changes we were making and adapt some of these processes to make them as workable as possible.

“In our experience, there can sometimes be an inertia to change, and sometimes a reluctance to tackle to issues that we consider ‘not fixable’. Being involved in this workshop helped us realise there are a great many ideas on how to improve, from all disciplines involved in caring for patients – and equally, that there is no shortage of talent to enact them.

“We’re proud of the changes we’ve been able to make collectively, and have been rewarded by being able to see the impact that this is already having. Ultimately, we hope to be able to sustain these efforts for the future, and continue our commitment to improving patient experience.”