Clinical Audit Heroes Awards 2022
Who are this year’s Clinical Audit Heroes?
The Clinical Audit Heroes Awards are the highlight of Clinical Audit Awareness Week (13-17 June 2022). They are an opportunity to recognise, share and learn from the work taking place to improve the quality of healthcare for patients and users of services across the country.
Patient Safety Hero
WINNER: The Critical Care Audit Team at East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust. The team was nominated for their quality improvement project focusing on preventing never events occurring from misplaced nasogastric and feeding tubes into the lung, which demonstrated sustained improvements in patient safety. The judges were impressed by the team’s structured approach to identifying the problem and seeking to find a solution, as well as their evidence of improvement and commitment to continuing improvement of patient safety.
COMMENDED: Corrine DaCosta, Advanced Neonatal Nurse Practitioner. Corrine was nominated for an audit project that concentrated on safe sleeping in the neonatal unit at Sandwell & West Birmingham NHS Trust that resulted in improved patient safety, not only whilst patients were in the neonatal unit, but also when the patient was discharged home. The judges heard how Corrine thought outside the box: “An innovative aspect of this project is that it was identified that supporting parents at the earliest opportunity was more likely to create a sustainable improvement.”
Patient Advocate Hero
Whilst we received some excellent entries that involved patient engagement and advocacy, when reviewed by the judging panel against the published criteria, it was decided that we are unable to award a winner in this category this year. Instead, we have taken the decision to award multiple winners in other categories, some of which contain a strong element of patient and carer engagement. Read the full update here.
Influencing Change Hero
WINNER: Trauma Team at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust. The team were recognised for their work to improve the care of patients admitted to hospital with a fractured femur, utilising audit data collected for the National Hip Fracture Database. Their award submission detailed how the audit led to the development of a new fracture femur pathway, which was used to standardise care and embed a consistent approach to the initial management of patients.
COMMENDED: Deborah Douglas, Clinical Fellow. Deborah was commended for her audit focusing on getting major urological post-operative patients drinking, eating and mobilised through the introduction of a new digital platform. The judges heard how the audit resulted in the reduction of complications that patients suffer after surgery, improved healing and recovery, and reduced the length of stay.
COMMENDED: PIMS-TS at Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. The PIMS-TS team were commended for their audit focusing on children and young people with suspected Paediatric Multisystem Syndrome temporally associated with COVID-19 (PIMS-TS), the findings of which went on to inform the development of a regional clinical guideline for managing PIMS-TS.
Health Inequalities Hero
JOINT WINNER: National Paediatric Diabetes Audit. The audit was nominated for its work to reduce health inequalities in paediatric diabetes care through reporting outcomes broken down by ethnic category and deprivation quintile to enable a focus on closing the gap.
JOINT WINNER: Maternity Cultural Transformation Team at Epsom and St Helier NHS University Trust. The team were recognised for their work on reducing health inequalities with the Trust’s maternity services. The nomination details their use of quality improvement methodology to identify areas of inequality in their maternity population as well as efforts to improve access, remove the language barrier, increase information provision, and address staff cultural sensitivity.
Future-proofing Healthcare Hero
WINNER: Sustainable Respiratory Care Audit Team at Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The team was recognised for their work improving care for individual patients while also reducing the environmental impacts of healthcare. Their nomination detailed how the project provided a structure for the audit of patients’ techniques, preferences and knowledge about inhalers, and the need for a clinical review – interventions that can reduce the carbon footprint of healthcare while improving the quality of care.
Further resources and reading: Case study and blog.
COMMENDED: Enhanced Care and Support Team at Bolton Hospital NHS Trust. The team was commended for their work to improve dementia care in the Trust. The nomination details how the team has introduced sensory boxes on the wards and a discharge passport, as well as how they are working with the Integrated Discharge Team, ward and clinical staff and families/carers.
Full case studies on the wining and commended entries will be available in due course – sign up to our mailing list to receive notification when they’re available.
Lunch-and-Learn events
The winners were announced (and invited to present) at a series of five online Lunch-and-Learn events, hosted by N-QI-CAN, during Clinical Audit Awareness Week. To access recordings of these events – and to find out more about Clinical Audit Awareness Week generally – click here.