Shropshire Star

American expert helps Shropshire hospitals discharge delays cut by 60%

Fact-finding trips by health chiefs to a hospital in America have already led to an improvement in care for patients in Shropshire.

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The waiting time for people waiting for medication after being discharged from the Royal Shrewsbury and Princess Royal hospitals has been cut by more than 60 per cent over the past two months.

Patients are now waiting on average for about an hour-and-a-half to receive their medication after being told they can leave, compared to more than four-and-a-half hours in November.

The improvement has been made since Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) agreed a five-year partnership with the Virginia Mason Institute in Seattle, a 336-bed acute care hospital which is regarded as the safest in the world.

Trust representatives made their first trip across the Atlantic in November, and regular visits will be made to learn more from the American hospital's expertise.

Addressing the trust's board, Nick Holding, kaizen promotion office specialist, said: "One of the things we have looked at is the high number of discharge delays due to patients waiting for their medication.

"Our aim is to reduce that turnaround time by half. When we started the mean turnaround time was four hours and 40 minutes.

"That was measured from the point when the patient was told they could go home to the point when they got their medication.

"We ran an improvements programme last year and got the turnaround time down to two hours and 35 minutes. To do this we used Virginia Mason Institute methodology. We tried it again and in December got the time to one hour and 33 minutes.

"That is an overall reduction of 67 per cent – which totals three hours per patient.

"This means there is a potential release of about 300 hours per day of bed usage time and patients get an earlier discharge."

SaTH is one of five NHS trusts in England being mentored by the American hospital with the aim of transforming practices and cutting waste. It is hoped the partnership will help to cut the 800 avoidable deaths estimated to occur every month in hospitals in England.

Cathy Smith, kaizen promotion office leader, said: "

We will take the Virginia Mason production system and adopt it for us to use for years to come."

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