BHB seeks community input into improving patient flow

Friday 26 January 2024: Bermuda Hospitals Board (BHB) today asks people who have been an inpatient at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital to fill in a short survey about their experience and to provide details about where they experienced delays.

The survey is part of a 100 day challenge that started on 1 December, with the goal of improving internal processes that impact patient flow through King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. The survey can be accessed at: www.surveymonkey.com/r/BHB100DAYS

CEO & President Scott Pearman notes that while many discharge delays relate to external service availability, BHB wants to do all it can to ensure its internal processes are as efficient as possible.

“Our longest delays are due to external factors,” Mr Pearman says, “but the challenge we have set ourselves is whether the inpatient who was in hospital for seven days could have been discharged in five or six if our internal processes were more efficient.

“The 100 Day Challenge and survey feed into our larger people-centred care journey. While we are looking at our data to help us identify where improvements can be made, patients and their families have lived experience that can help illuminate issues that are impacting them.”

The executive sponsor of the challenge, Chief of Nursing Judy Richardson, says the initiative is a way to focus multiple teams on what is a collective responsibility, to learn as much as possible where the delays are and to either test an improvement or identify longer term or more complex changes that will be picked up past the 100 days.

“This challenge is about how we collaborate and work internally,” Mrs Richardson explains. “From diagnostic imaging to the inpatient wards, environmental services to porters, lab services to individual specialists, we are asking our staff across areas to improve the patient journey. If inpatients need an MRI, for example, how can we make sure they are seen within a day of the referral. We can’t solve everything in 100 days, but the challenge is to learn and test as much as we can.”

Keltie Jamieson, Chief Hospital Information Officer adds, “Our electronic medical record, PEARL, will help us collate data and see what is happening around the organisation. This data is a big help in identifying and measuring change, but the heart of the project is engaging staff, patients and families around the single focus of improving patient flow.

“This survey is available for people who want to provide details about their patient journey, and the 100 Day Challenge team is speaking with patients and their families while they are in hospital so we fully understand and incorporate their feedback when making changes.”

The 100 Day Challenge ends in March, and BHB will provide an update in April of the Challenge outcomes.

Pictured left to right above discussing data in the 100 Day Challenge Command Centre are BHB staff Martin Maurais, Quality Manager; Olievia Martins, Clinical Informatics Specialist; and Karen Raynor, Clinical Director Medical Surgical Services.

Archives