Loading...
QI 1264 Improving the Referral Pathway to AMHAT at George Eliot Hospital (GEH)
Kashif, Mohammad Supported by the Quality Improvement Team, Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust
Kashif, Mohammad
Supported by the Quality Improvement Team, Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust
Citations
Altmetric:
Affiliation
Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust
Other Contributors
Publication date
2024
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Abstract
To reduce the time of the Arden Mental Health Acute Team (AMHAT) referral process for patients on GEH wards by 15 minutes and for patients in A&E by 10 minutes by 30th April 2024.
AMHAT at CWPT provides liaison work to UHCW, SWFT and GEH and receives referrals from each of these areas. This project focussed on referrals from GEH wards and A&E. The AMHAT team receives an average of 45 referrals from wards at GEH and 75 referrals from GEH A&E each month. Staff on wards were required to write out referrals by hand and to then ask ward clerks to scan and email them to the AMHAT team; this whole process, if done smoothly took an average of 30 minutes. However, several issues were noted within the process which often led to increased referral times. Referrals from A&E were made over the phone to AMHAT clinical support staff, who then wrote on the referral form and informed clinical staff to respond. This process took an
average of 21 minutes. The staff involved wanted to simplify the referral process and make it more robust to improve the referral experience for both patients and staff.
Tools Used
PDSA Cycles - https://aqua.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/qsir-pdsa-cycles-model-for-improvement.pdf
Driver Diagram - https://aqua.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/qsir-driver-diagrams.pdf
Sustainability Tool - https://aqua.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/qsir-sustainability-model.pdf
Process Mapping - https://aqua.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/qsir-conventional-process-mapping.pdf
Project Impact
Patients can be seen and treated faster.
The time for each referral from the ward reduced by an average of 17 minutes and the time for referrals from A&E reduced by 11 minutes.
There was a reduction in the total time spent on making referrals each month from 24 hours to 11 hours.
Legibility problems have been eliminated and there is no longer any missing information as the required fields are mandatory. The new system also provides a transparent process and audit trail.
Ward clerk time as been freed up as this is no longer needed for AMHAT referrals.
There is a reduction in paper waste as paper forms are no longer in use.
Citation
Kashif, Mohammad; CWPT Quality Improvement Team. QI-1264 Improving the Referral Pathway to AMHAT at George Eliot Hospital (GEH). Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust, 2024.
Type
Internal Poster