Newsletter- Issue 2 - May 2017

Dear All,

Little bit later than planned, but here’s the latest on where everyone is up to with their Tests of Change….

Barton Brook
The team are now focusing on falls and have decided to pimp a particularly high-risk resident’s zimmer. They plan to track the number of times this resident tries to walk without their zimmer before and after it has been pimped in order to see if pimping the zimmer means that he is more likely to remember to use it. /
Broughton House
Bob and Alex attended a staff meeting to explain the collaborative to the wider team and Debbie wants to improve the use of topical medications i.e. are the residents having their creams applied in the right place at the right time for the right amount of time? Debbie is particularly keen to improve documentation on TMAR sheets. /
Cherry Trees
As ‘Salford Together’ are now going to lead the ‘red bag’ initiative, Darren has re-focused his efforts on falls. He has chosen to implement a ‘Resident of the Day’ scheme where the team use a falls prevention checklist whilst discussing a particular resident and ensure that everything is being done to prevent a fall. In addition, they are testing daily safety huddles to attempt to predict and prevent falls occurring through increased staff awareness and implementing simple falls prevention strategies. Tazeem attended a staff meeting to ensure the whole team are on-board with the collaborative. /
Ecclesholme
Emma is planning to undertake a Test of Change to ensure that all residents had named spectacles, a photo of their glasses on their room door and an optical check within the last 12 months. The aim of this test is to reduce the risk of falls. /
The Fountains
The Fountains is a big home and so they are going to focus their efforts on The Victoria unit initially. Communication is an issue, so they are going to get started by holding a staff meeting to get the whole unit involved and generate some improvement ideas.
Heartly Green
The team have worked really hard to try and improve staff compliance with monitoring residents’ weights and improve the nutritional intake of underweight residents to reduce the risk of falls and/developing pressure sores. They have also held their Safety Meeting and developed actions plans for several residents to reduce their risk of falls. They have a wider staff meeting planned and are hoping this will generate further improvement ideas and engage the whole team. /

Newlands
Joanne has shared another of her ‘out of the box’ ideas – remember the lagging on the wheelchairs? The latest idea is leg warmers rather than ‘pop socks’ which dig in to oedematous legs and cause more discomfort. Joanne is keen to develop some ‘champion’ roles within the home to empower staff to be strong advocates for the residents and be vigilant about maintaining high standards. /
Thornton Lodge
Caron has been really busy having held a staff meeting, a residents and relatives meeting, implementing the safety cross, putting up ‘fabulous footwear’ posters to remind staff and relatives to ensure safe footwear is always used, holding a ‘Concerns Huddle’ to discuss the resident felt most likely to fall and then implementing an action plan i.e. ‘pimp the zimmer’ to see if a fall can be prevented. Keep it up Caron! /
Wentworth House
First of all, HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Tony and team for being awarded a highly recommended Care Home award from carehomes.co.uk! Tony has re-introduced the ‘Resident of the Day’ initiative and is testing a falls prevention checklist as part of this. His team have discussed every resident since starting the initiative and Tony feels that this has led to greater staff awareness of individual residents’ risk of falling and an increased number of referrals to external services. Tony believes that using the checklist will demonstrate to the CQC a proactive approach to falls management. /

Other News….

  • Please make sure you reply to the Learning Session invite for 30th May. We need you ALL to be there. You should be working in teams by now – so every home should be able send a representative.
  • Tazeem Shah will be taking over from Caroline Rogers as Programme Lead from early June. Caroline is going to work at Blackburn Hospital, but will be staying in touch with Haelo and hoping to hear of some exciting improvements!

Thanks, Caroline, Alex and Bob….and Tazeem!