The Safeguarding team, caring for patients at local hospitals in Scunthorpe, Grimsby and Goole as well as some community services, has been shortlisted for a national award.
The team, from Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, are down to the final three in the Safety Improvement through Technology category in the Health Service Journal (HSJ) Patient Safety Awards.
Chief Nurse, Ellie Monkhouse, explains: “The wellbeing of those we care for is at the heart of everything we do. As an organisation, we have a responsibility to safeguard our patients, protecting and supporting those at risk of abuse or neglect. Our Safeguarding team provides guidance to colleagues to ensure they consistently and conscientiously apply the principles of safeguarding. The service covers North Lincolnshire, North East Lincolnshire, East Riding and Lincolnshire.
“Alongside their IT colleagues, the team have been shortlisted following a project to transform our safeguarding referral process. Historically, there was a different approach for each area and now following the introduction of our new, bespoke, electronic referral process, we are seeing so many benefits for patients and staff!
“The new process is fully electronic and synced with patient records enabling healthcare colleagues to make direct referrals. Referrals can also now be tracked by any staff member caring for the patient, and not just the original referrer. We are engaging more with our patients as we’re understanding and documenting their preferred outcomes and the Discharge team can check for any safeguarding issues that may be relevant before the patient is sent home.”
The new approach to safeguarding referrals has been adopted across the whole organisation and is completed using WebV – our electronic patient record system. As part of the rollout, the Safeguarding team have provided bespoke training sessions to our Emergency Department staff, community teams and other areas. It’s allowing the team to collect data more easily on the referrals being made and the outcomes, which in turn will help to further improve the service and staff knowledge.
Ellie added: “The local authorities have reported an improvement in the quality of referrals, making them easier to triage. The team and I are thrilled with the success of this work, proud of our colleagues for supporting this change and even more so to be shortlisted for a HSJ Patient Safety Award.”
The team is due to present to a HSJ judging panel later this month before attending the awards ceremony take place on Monday 18 September in Manchester.