Psychiatric Intensive
Care Units are one of eight areas of healthcare being tackled
by a successful national initiative from the NHS Institute for
Innovation and Improvement (NHS Institute).
The second phase of NHS
Institute’s Focus on: High Volume Care Programme is based upon 12
months of clinically-led work into eight areas of healthcare, one
of which is care in Psychiatric Intensive Care Units (PICUs).
The work sets out to
identify therapeutic and managerial interventions, actions and
processes that improve a patient’s journey through PICU, aid
recovery and deliver safe, cost effective care. The emphasis of the
work has been on identifying good practice that can be shared
amongst other NHS organisations and used to encourage service
users, families and carers to take part and contribute towards
improving care.
Today sees the launch of
the Focus on document outlining the work that has been carried out
by the Delivering Quality and Value team at the NHS Institute. The
document includes examples of good practice in psychiatric
intensive care from top-performing NHS organisations across the
country and the team will produce a set of ‘products’ later this
year, which will help other NHS organisations improve healthcare,
increase efficiency and develop in this area. These free products
will be made available to NHS organisations in England and will be
downloadable from the NHS Institute website.
Some of the key
characteristics of the case studies from top-performing
organisations included in the Focus on document are:
-
Recovering ordinary
lives. Trampolining and line dancing are on the menu at one Trust
in a project designed to give acute mental health patients access
to wide range of therapeutic and ‘normal’ leisure opportunities
from day-to-day. Boredom and incidences of challenging behaviour
are higher when structured activity is unavailable. The therapy
team is working closely with service users and the broader
multi-disciplinary team and the flexibility and responsiveness of
staff has been at the heart of the success of the project.
-
Patient Feedback
questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed at Foundation
Trust in response to informal discussions with service users in
which they expressed clear expectations about their treatment and
care during admission. The introduction of the questionnaire and a
process for using it effectively, has meant staff use service
users’ and carers’ experiences to improve quality of care and set
new standards.
During the course of the
research, the NHS Institute team engaged with a wide range of
clinical and managerial professionals. The trusts visited as part
of the psychiatric intensive care unit work were; Birmingham and
Solihull Mental Health NHS Trust; Gloucester Partnership NHS
Foundation Trust; Nottingham Healthcare NHS Trust; Oxleas and Bucks
Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust; Sussex Partnership NHS Trust;
ST Olav’s Hospital, Trondheim; and The Huntercombe Group,
Roehampton Hospital.
Notes:
1. High
volume care groups are clinically similar activities for which a
similar quantity of resources is needed. They are also the basis
for the NHS Payment by Results system.
2. A full
copy of the Focus on: High Volume Care report is available to
download at:
NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement - High volume care
update
3 The
NHS Institute was established in 2005. It aims to support the
NHS with high-impact solutions to some of its biggest challenges,
as well as innovative ideas, new practices and technologies that
will really make a difference to the delivery of patient care. The
mission of the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement is to
improve health outcomes and raise the quality of delivery in the
NHS by accelerating the uptake of proven innovation and
improvements in healthcare delivery models and processes, medical
products and devices and healthcare leadership. Further information
on the work of the NHS Institute is available at www.institute.nhs.uk/
Media contacts:
For further information, please contact:
Tom Rawlings on 0121 236 7532,
email: tom.rawlings@trimediauk.com
Laura Sayer on 0121 236 7532, email:
laura.sayer@trimediauk.com
Sarah Dean Forrester on 0161 266 1023, email:
sarahdean.forrester@trimediauk.com
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Page last updated on 14 February
2008 by E Baker-Glenn