Mental Health gets involved
The latest team to get involved in the Productive Ward Series is Mental Health with ‘Switched on to PDSA’ as part of Releasing Time
to Care. That’s Plan, Do, Study and Act (PDSA) to those unfamiliar with the new service improvement language.
Since May 2015, the Tauranga and Whakatāne In-patient Mental Health wards have been involved in making changes to the
work environment with the aim of improving the care to patients. Feedback is an important part of the PDSA cycle and with staff
commenting on changes, everyone is able to have a part to play in quality improvement.
Act: Revise
card
Study: Some key
numbers missing,
7 mins wasted
looking for number
Terminology
Plan: Too much
time spent looking
for key phone
Do: Pocket cards
attached to ID’s
•
Model for Improvement… is a simple quality improvement methodology that can be applied by all in
healthcare. There are three fundamental questions to answer before testing a new change.
•
Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle…. is shorthand for testing a change — by planning it, trying it,
observing the results, and acting on what is learned – it’s about action in the real world.
•
Small test of change… is about starting a PDSA cycle very small to see if it works before building it up
i.e. try a new idea with one patient, then 5 patients, then 10 patients and so on…
•
IHI Open School….is an educational community where staff can get access to training in the Model for
Improvement online.
How to get involved in improving
things around here?
Service improvement is everyone’s
responsibility, regardless of whether you
are a senior medical doctor, junior doctor,
administrator, cleaner or manager. The
SIU aim’s to give BOPDHB staff the tools,
templates, support and mentoring to give
projects every chance of success.
Well over 250 BOPDHB staff have started this training and we
recommend anyone about to embark on an improvement initiative
undertake the online training before the project starts. The IHI
Open School Quality Improvement course takes approximately
six hours to fully complete and can be done in stages. Best of all,
the course is available free to all BOPDHB staff and is also being
made available to our community providers.
We have adopted the
Institute of Healthcare
Improvement’s (IHI)
Model of Improvement
methodology and online
training to help us do this.
Alongside the online training, the SIU offers opportunities for
BOPDHB staff to be seconded to the unit while undertaking a
major piece of work.
To find out more about
accessing the IHI Open
School for free, contact
any member of the SIU.
To find out more about accessing the IHI Open School for free,
contact any member of the SIU.
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