The EFM Senior Management Team at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust were finalists in the Team of the Year category at HEFMA's 2019 awards. HEFMA finds out more.
Over the previous two years this team has made substantial improvements to the quality of their services following a period of acute instability that resulted in the loss of the Director and all but one member of the Senior Management Team (SMT) in summer 2016.
Newly appointed Director, Kirsty Edmondson-Jones, formed the interim SMT in order to stabilise the services. The team members were all undertaking different roles at the time, but took a leap of faith in agreeing to take on the necessary roles on secondment to form a new SMT. They were each selected for their commitment and dedication, their passion for their services, and because they quite simply appeared to 'care'.
The new SMT more than rose to the challenge. Their determination took EFM from being the worst performing Directorate in the Trust with regard to metrics such as PADR, to the best performing by being the first and only Directorate to reach the target of 90% by the end of 17/18, performance that was mainlined throughout 18/19.
Cleaning scores in the National Patient Survey achieved the highest level of '1'. The Trust also moved into the top 20 performing Trusts in 2017/18 from the worst performing for PLACE cleaning scores in 2016/17 following a LEAN review of cleaning and portering services. In addition to improving quality, the review also saved a recurrent £400k per annum.
A large project to outsource catering services that mobilised in January 2018 is demonstrating quality benefits both in retail and patient services. A Costa and a Subway are now located in a completely refurbished restaurant at the Doncaster Royal Infirmary (DRI) site, which also has a remodelled entrance with living wall. In the latest PLACE scores, patient service improved by up to 10%. In addition to improving quality and bringing investment, the project saved the Trust £3.8m in direct costs with an £11m overall benefit for the 10-year contract.
Within Estates, Planned Preventative Maintenance task completion has increased by 6,000 per year, and a newly created post - a B1 Patient Environment Assistant has been developed. Three of these are in place at DRI, dealing directly with lower level condition, cleaning and appearance quality issues that would often have been left for many months due to the need to prioritise engineer's workloads. This new role is proving very popular with wards who now have a daily 'handyman' to visit their areas.
Compliance against the NHS Premises Assurance Model has improved by 18% in a year, taking the Trust to 'Good/Minimal Improvement', and a bid for £137m to reconfigure theatres, women’s and children’s and ED at DRI, and ED at BDGH (Bassetlaw District General Hospital) was supported by the SYB (South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw) ICS and submitted to NHS Improvement. A new EFM Strategy was ratified by the Board of Directors in December 2017 and all KPIs have been achieved for this first full year of the five-year strategy. The Directorate, led by the Estates team at DRI, has become an early adopter of NHSi LEAN methods and is now being used as an exemplar service that clinical services such as ED and Orthopaedics visit to view the daily use of Visual Management Boards, 8 Wastes, 6 P’s and other such tools.
Aside from KPI performance and marquee projects, the views of staff themselves are among the most telling metrics. The last staff survey EFM saw 69% of its scores improve by up to 12%, with the Directorate now leading the Trust for several questions such as 'Patients views are used to inform the delivery of services'.
Whilst there is still work to be done to achieve the desired gold standard level of service, just about every metric EFM can be measured by has improved significantly in the last two years, evidenced by both internal and external assessment. The team deserve recognition for their achievements, and for their dedication, commitment and enthusiasm in making that happen.
