Quality Improvement

Evolving role of Quality Improvement in Health and Care Services

The Caring for Ayrshire Quality Improvement (QI) Team was established in January 2023 with the aim of empowering and equipping NHS Ayrshire & Arran to embrace a culture of ongoing improvement across all Caring for Ayrshire projects leading to a sustainable health care system.  The establishment of this team was an innovative and progressive step forward in the shaping of new care delivery and as far as the team are aware the first in NHS Scotland of its kind.

As more of us are living longer, the number of people needing care is increasing. This means our health and care services need to evolve to make sure we can look after more people, in better ways now and in the future and as close to their homely environment as possible.

 “Our mission is to empower teams to realise transformational and sustainable change in health care through the application of quality Improvement techniques and expertise” Lorna Copeland, Improvement Lead.

 The Caring for Ayrshire (CFA) plan of progression is currently under development and as a result building a portfolio of work, guided by the principles of CFA has been the priority. The QI team will focus on improving outcomes to support the change in balance of care delivery from the acute setting to community using QI methodology, ensuring patients and staff receive/provide equitable care at home or as close to a homely setting as possible. The measures associated with this are currently not driven nationally but rather individual projects focussing on organisational priorities.

Since its inception in January 2023 the Caring for Ayrshire Quality Improvement (QI) Team has had a pivotal role in shaping and progressing key work streams associated with NHS Ayrshire and Arran Community Nursing Review and it’s overarching aim of developing a care model to meet the needs of our changing patient demographics and also to support improved workforce planning with clear career progression pathways. The positive achievements that QI have helped to achieve has also been recognised by the Associate Nurse Director (Dalene Steel) in the ‘Daring to Succeed’ September edition. 

 The Caring for Ayrshire Quality Improvement (QI) Team has also provided quality improvement support to:

• myOP - project funded by Caring for Ayrshire, introducing a digital self-management resource within existing perioperative assessment pathways).
• Hospital at Home - short-term, targeted intervention that provides a level of acute hospital care in an individual’s own home, or homely setting that is equivalent to that provided within a hospital
• CAMHS Neurodiversity - To ensure that young people and their families can receive the right support at the right time and that this is seamless, and the journey is easy to navigate with shared understanding and joined up working across the system.

As the Caring for Ayrshire Quality Improvement (QI) Team continues to evolve so does the progression of work streams, innovations and service developments that the team are aligned to. This is undoubtedly in part due to the resounding commitment and expertise of the team itself. Team members have joined the team with a wide range of diverse skills set and have very quickly formed a strong bond and effective union with key stake holders & change agents across the organisation.

 How have we achieved such positive working relationships?

• Regular 1:1s with team members.
• Team building day to identify the vision and mission of the new team to develop a sense of shared responsibility.
• Open and transparent working relationships to build psychological safety within the work place.
• Encouragement of distributed working to facilitate autonomy and ideal working environments for each team member.
• Regular weekly ‘catch-ups’ to ensure we can share worries/concerns and use each other’s experiences to enrich pieces of ongoing work.
• Dynamic and efficient use of a work planner. This is completed during the ‘catch up’ to ensure everyone is up to date and sharing progress with projects.
• Utilisation of QI tools to provide a road map for our journey. This was composed by the team at our team building day.  This allowed both shared ownership and purpose within the team. 

 Here’s what some of the team members had to say about their experience so far of working in the Caring for Ayrshire Quality Improvement (QI) Team:

“Although this is a new team, we have hit the ground running! 

Working with people who are engaged in delivering improvement is highly motivating and provides complete job satisfaction.

Joining a new team to deliver a new service has been a complete pleasure with my new likeminded colleagues” Karin Mathie, Improvement Facilitator.

“I joined this team from another service 5 months ago and have already learned so much especially from my colleagues who have been encouraging and supportive in equal measure. I am honoured to be a part of delivering improvement in such a wide scale across the organisation and remain excited at what the future holds for CFA Quality Improvement Team” Karen Jamieson, Improvement Facilitator.

“I am extremely proud of what the team have achieved over such a short space of time.  The dynamic leadership skills of the team as a whole have facilitated the development and rapidly expanding portfolio of work. We all bring unique skills and experience that we harness as a team to drive service improvement forward “.Quality Improvement Lead