To follow
Minutes:
Jacqui Scott, Chief Executive Officer – Bromley Healthcare (“Chief Executive Officer”) provided an update on the work being undertaken by the organisation. A copy of the presentation is attached to the minutes at Appendix A.
Over the last year, Bromley Healthcare had carried out over 600,000 patient interventions, both virtual and face to face. During the first wave of the pandemic a number of services had been paused or changed, but during the second wave all services had continued. Over 500 laptops had been issued to staff to enable remote working and virtual consultations.
The Chief Executive Officer advised Members that COVID-19 related workforce absences had increased in line with local population increases. As at the 12th July 2021, there were 20 staff absences related to COVID-19: 10 staff were self-isolating; 4 staff had recorded a positive COVID-19 test; and 6 staff were suffering from the effects of Long Covid. There were also around 30 staff who had been risk assessed and were required to work from home. 90% of all staff had received at least one COVID-19 vaccination, however this was lower for BAME staff at 78% and they were continuing to work with the staff groups that had the lowest uptake.
The Bromley Community COVID Monitoring Service (BCMS) provided a 2-hour response to any patients that were COVID-19 positive. Over the last 7 days there had been 25 referrals into the service, which was an increase from 15 in the previous week. The current case load was 8 patients, which was significantly lower than at the peak of the pandemic when there were 200 patients at any one time.
The Chief Executive Officer advised that there were four key quality improvement objectives for 2021/22, as stated in the Bromley Health Care Quality Account:
- Objective 1: Reduction of avoidable acquired pressure ulcers – this was the highest level of reported incidents across the organisation, for which a working group had been established.
- Objective 2: Reduce the number of patients who fall whilst under our care and ensure the appropriate interventions have been completed – the majority of falls happened in people’s homes and were therefore unwitnessed and a working group had also been established.
- Objective 3: To Improve the standard of clinical record keeping – the organisation’s most recent record keeping audit had marked them in the high 80% but they wanted to improve this further, and a standard had been introduced for all records to be updated within 48 hours.
- Objective 4: Reduce the number of Medicines incidents causing harm.
The Chief Executive Officer highlighted that quality underpinned everything that the organisation undertook and there were a number of areas in which it was monitored:
- Workforce development – a large proportion of the workforce was extremely tired, as they had been working throughout the duration of the pandemic, and Bromley Healthcare were providing them with support. There was also a focus on career pathways and progression, provision of leadership training and internal promotion.
- Datix IQ – this was a system for monitoring feedback across the organisation, which had recently been upgraded to help keep track of all complaints, incidents and positive feedback. The Chief Executive Officer advised that she received a daily email providing an overview of any incidents and a weekly review meeting took place to ensure any necessary action was taken.
- Business intelligence tools – dashboards were used to improve patient safety and patient outcomes, and a series of mock Care Quality Commission (CGC) inspections had been undertaken.
In terms of health and wellbeing, Bromley Healthcare had held a number of initiatives, including a ‘Wellbeing Week’ where staff took part in yoga, exercise sessions and the ‘Big Walk Challenge’. Schwartz Rounds had also been introduced to support the emotional wellbeing of staff, and 16 Mental Health First Aiders had been trained. An Equality and Inclusion Network had also been established and was currently working on a number of different initiatives.
The Chief Executive Officer informed Members that the Bromley 0-19 Public Health Service had been implemented from 1st April and there was now a new website in place. Work was being undertaken to ensure that the KPIs’ were at the correct level and a dashboard was being used to monitor this. In collaboration with the PRUH, Bromley Healthcare had also established a new Hospital@Home service for children, which had received very good feedback from both the hospital and the families, and data was provided regarding the potential number of bed days that had been saved.
It was noted that the first standards for Community Services had been introduced the previous year in relation to 2-hour and 2-day response. Bromley Healthcare was part of the SEL accelerator site and both of these targets were being achieved, and one of the key services within this was Bed Based Rehab. Benchmarking data highlighted that patients being admitted had acuity levels similar to patients in other areas, however the patients in Bromley were discharged with a greater level of improvement. There had also been an improvement in the length of stay (LOS) which had reduced by 20% over the previous three financial years.
The Chief Executive Officer advised Bromley Healthcare usually held a staff ball to recognise the work undertaken by colleagues. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic this had not been possible, however awards had been presented to staff at their places of work.
With regards to friends and family patient feedback, the Chief Executive Officer informed Members that the collection of this had been suspended until August 2020, but from September 2020 onwards Bromley Healthcare had stood at between 97-100% on a monthly basis. It was noted that there were challenges within some of the Bromley Healthcare services following the COVID-19 pandemic. The waiting times for some services were much improved as they had taken the opportunity to review how they were delivered, but others had longer waiting times, particularly the wheelchair service. Bromley Healthcare were in the process of recruiting another clinician into the wheelchair service; new premises had been identified; and the use of a local equipment supplier would be implemented. It was hoped that this service would be in a much stronger position in the new year.
The Chairman led Members in thanking Jacqui Scott for her update regarding the work of Bromley Healthcare.