First person piece from Debbie Kadum, Sponsor of the first Value Stream (Respiratory)

I am the very proud sponsor of the first Rapid Process Improvement Week (RPIW), which took place as part of our exciting partnership  with the Virginia Mason Institute in Seattle.

The week used the methodology we have learnt from Virginia Mason to look at ways to improve Respiratory Discharge which is our first Value Stream as part of the partnership.

A Value Stream looks at a pathway of care that our patients experience, and makes sure that at every stage we are focusing on activities that add value for patients and put patients first.

The RPIW was the culmination of many weeks of planning and preparation work, from identifying the current state of the Respiratory Discharge Pathway through to the use of a Value Stream Map, identifying the care we would want to provide for our patients in the future.

The aims of the week were to significantly improve the privacy and dignity of patients attending the Ambulatory Care Unit at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and reduce the time it takes for a patient to be assessed in the unit by 50%.

My role as sponsor was to remove any barriers that the team came up against and to provide challenge to ensure we got the right output for patients at the end of the week.

Why is this work important for us at SATH? Because what drives us is that we want to ensure that we provide the best outcome for our patients and, when we are at our busiest, this can be an incredible burden on you, our staff. The RPIW looked at ways to improve the process for Respiratory Discharge to benefit patients and also to bring improvements for you.

The work done during RPIW has been incredible. The journey was amazing. The challenges we set ourselves on the first day were to absolutely put the patient first at all times, give the care we want to give, to improve privacy and dignity; remove the waste, ensure equipment is always available, reduce the amount of walking, and find the opportunities for improvement.

We also wanted to challenge ourselves to celebrate what we do well and set the standard for the rest of the Trust. It is evident that all these challenges were achieved during the week.

During the RPIW we learned that small changes can have big impacts. We also learned that we can improve patient care by working together and asking those who know best how to improve it. That gives us hope that at SATH we can break out of the fire fighting that we do every day.

I want to thank everyone who played a role in our first RPIW for their commitment, hard work and belief.

There is a saying that “to accomplish great things we must not only act but also dream, not only plan but also believe”. Our teams showed belief all week and have clearly shown just what can be achieved.

At the start of the week I said I wanted a patient who attended the Ambulatory Care Unit not to be more breathless at the end of their assessment process than they were when they arrived ‐ by reducing the time for an assessment and the steps taken this will now be a rare occurrence.

However, this is only the start. The challenge now is to ensure that we embed these improvements and I, alongside Sarah Kirk (Matron at PRH and Process Owner for the Value Stream), Clare Walsgrove Matron at RSH), and Lesley Stokes (AMU Ward Manager at RSH) will ensure that this happens.