PERFORMANCE: Trusts in the East Midlands are importing a US nursing model involving hourly checks on patients, in response to last month’s critical health service ombudsman report on care of older patients.
NHS East Midlands board papers note the strategic health authority is sending all trusts in the region information about “hourly rounding”, in which nurses proactively visit patients on an hourly basis on top of their usual duties.
Nottingham University Hospitals Trust has been piloting the model and last week demonstrated it to officials from the strategic health authority and Department of Health.
Over three months, patient buzzer use dropped by 66 per cent across two wards. Among ophthalmology patients, there was a 100 per cent reduction in calls from patients needing the toilet. The trust is spreading the model to other wards in the hope it will also help to reduce falls and pressure ulcers.
Head and necks directorate matron Andrew Riley said: “Cynics say ‘we’ve always done this’ but we’ve not done it in a structured way before. Patients say the ward felt more therapeutic because there wasn’t that chaos of buzzers going off constantly.”
Trust assistant director of nursing Kerry Bloodworth said: “This is about having a dialogue with patients [and] nursing staff becoming more visible.”
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