Published on: 11 January 2024
A team of Occupational Therapists working at Derbyshire Healthcare have recently had an article published in the latest edition of the British Medical Journal on how to improve the occupational therapy admission process in an older adult inpatient service, after significantly speeding up the time taken to carry out a first assessment with patients.
The team, which included Dr Joshua Ige, Dr David Hunt, Amanda Mitchell, Emma Eaton, Anne Walker, Rachael Fearn, Lizzie Kirkham, Abigail Staples, Adam Giles, and Bethany Wilson, wrote the article on improving the standardisation, timeliness, and efficiency of the occupational therapy admission process across the two healthcare facilities at Kingsway Hospital in Derby where they work: Cubley Court, which specialises in acute dementia care, and Tissington House, which specialises in acute mental health care for older people.
Through a process of quality improvement, the team increased the percentage of patients benefiting from Occupational Therapy initial assessments within seven days of admission from 47.65% to 78%.
The team were also winners at the Trust’s annual staff awards in November, in the Quality Improvement and Research Excellence category, for the same project. They worked in collaboration across Cubley and Tissington wards to initiate changes based on five PDSA cycles – Plan, Do, Study, Act. The project empowered colleagues and this resulted in both teams being able to maintain the progress achieved six months after the completion of the project.
The BMJ article covers the quality improvement process and illustrates the contribution of Occupational Therapists to the NHS Long Term Plan in terms of supporting a therapeutic environment, patient flow and patient safety in an inpatient mental health setting. It also shows how Occupational Therapists can contribute to the Accreditation of Inpatient Mental Health Services (AIMS) standards.
Joshua has worked as an occupational therapist for 15 years. Prior to becoming an Occupational Therapist, Joshua studied for a couple of years as a physiotherapy student, which is where his interest in occupational therapy grew.
Joshua Ige, Divisional Lead Occupational Therapist at Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We worked together to improve the quality of our initial assessments to ensure that our patients received their assessments in a timely, efficient and person-centred manner. We improved the timeliness of our assessments without compromising other qualities such as safety. This was based on the belief that timely assessments will lead to timely treatment and timely discharge based on the position of NHS long term plan.
“We also ensured that the project was financially and environmentally sustainable. This meant that no extra finances were spent on staffing or resources and the project was completed within meetings that were already in existence.”
Arun Chidambaram, Medical Director at Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This is fantastic news for our patients who will benefit from a speedier assessment process when accessing the service. Dr Ige and the team should also be extremely pleased with receiving national recognition for their hard work.
“This team are always going above and beyond to produce high quality publications and so they should be commended for their efforts.”
