High commendation awarded to Home First therapists

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trusts’ Integrated Community Team Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy staff have recently been awarded a High Commendation for their quality improvement project at the Health Service Journal’s Patient Safety award ceremony held in Manchester.

The therapists have been part of a quality improvement project which aimed to improve the therapy staff’s confidence and competence in spotting a deteriorating patient in the home setting and escalating for a prompt clinical response after therapists identified this as a need due to increased acuity of patients on the Home first pathway. Using quality improvement methodology, testing a change idea and measuring improvement within a Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) cycle, therapists and support workers were trained in taking clinical observations using the National Early Warning Signs tool (NEWS2) and following the Trust’s escalation pathway.

The quality improvement project demonstrated an increase in therapy staff’s confidence and competence in spotting deterioration at an early stage as well as improved outcomes for the patient due to being able to communicate objective measurements which supports partners in their triaging, ensuring the patient receives the right care at the right time. The next stage of the project is to roll the training out to other therapy teams within the Trust.

Our congratulations to this team on their well deserved award.