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Nine visitors from The Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria joined staff and managers from nursing and residential homes across the East Midlands for this year’s LPZ Awards and learning event.
Held today (Tuesday 5 February) at Trent Vineyard in Nottingham, the event saw the presentation of seven awards, celebrating the achievement of individuals and care homes across the region in improving the quality and safety of care.
The awards were based on the results of care homes using the LPZ audit tool over the last year. LPZ monitors the prevalence of common care issues such as pressure ulcers, continence, nutrition, falls and pain management. Homes are then able to use this information to make changes to care delivery to improve safety, health and wellbeing of their residents.
The Landielijke Pravelentiemeting Zorgkwaliteit (LPZ) tool was developed by Maastricht University in The Netherlands and is now used in Austria, New Zealand, Turkey, Brazil, Germany and Switzerland.
LPZ was adopted as a quality and safety improvement initiative by the East Midlands Patient Safety Collaborative (EMPSC) four years ago; funding the roll-out of the audit tool to care homes and providing supporting training and resources.
Nursing and residential homes in the East Midlands are the first in the UK to use LPZ, with 39 care homes across the region now using the tool to make improvements in the quality and safety of care for residents.
Representatives from other European countries using LPZ attended the event to learn how the East Midlands has expanded its use beyond prevalence monitoring to provide bench marking data and specific training and support to act as a quality improvement incentive.
Says Professor Jos Schols, who was part of the team at Maastricht University who created LPZ: “We are delighted to see the scale of quality improvement that has been achieved here in the East Midlands through the implementation of LPZ. It’s clear that providing bench marking data that allows care homes to compare their performance with peers is motivating individual homes to focus on improvement.”
Adds Adam Gordon, Consultant Geriatrician at Derby Hospitals and clinical lead for the LPZ programme, adds: “It’s been exciting to see the enthusiasm amongst care home staff in using LPZ and how they are encouraged by the results they have been able to achieve. Many homes have been able to track positive progress year on year and some have been able to improve their CQC rating by evidencing increased safety and quality in their home.”
Cheryl Crocker, Executive Lead for the EMPSC says: “It was great for care home staff to come together at this event to share their results and learning as members of the East Midlands LPZ community. These awards recognise some of the fantastic work taking place across the region thanks to the creativity and commitment of care homes staff. Nursing and residential homes play a crucial role within the health and care system; through initiatives like LPZ they can help reduce ambulance call-outs, unplanned hospital admissions and medication errors. Our ‘care home heroes’ are often unsung and through this event we really wanted to shine a spotlight on their vital contribution.”
As well as the presentation of awards, the LPZ event also saw the official launch of React to Falls and React to Feet, two new training resources developed by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Nottingham. These two training packages are the latest additions to the React to... series, which includes React to Red and React to Moisture; both of which have been received positively by LPZ care homes and are now being rolled out to other regions.
The winners of the LPZ awards based on 2018 results are:
Care Home Team of the Year - Wren Hall Nursing Home, Selston, Notts
Supporting Team of the Year - Nottinghamshire Falls Teams from Nottingham University & Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Outstanding Individual of the Year - Lucy Dawson, Wren Hall Nursing Home, Selton, Notts
Most Improved Care Home of the Year - The Carlton Care Home, Carlton, Nottingham
Care Home Manager of the Year - Paula Doyle – Clova House, Shelton Lock, Derby
Innovation of the Year - Sophie Temple and Sarah Cooper, Oak House Residential Home, Oakham, Rutland
Above and Beyond Award - Alexandra Lodge Care Home, Mapperley Park, Nottingham
Find out more about the project and what it means to some of the care homes by watching the video below:
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About LPZ
The East Midlands Patient Safety Collaborative (EMPSC) has worked with The University of Nottingham, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Nottingham CityCare Partnership and Derbyshire and Nottingham Clinical Commissioning Groups to roll out LPZ training for care home staff and support the audit of care homes data.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has highlighted the implementation of LPZ as a proactive approach that care homes are taking to improve quality and safety in a number of its recent inspection reports.[i]
Evaluation of the impact of using the LPZ data audit tool in care homes is on-going with a view to future, wider roll-out in other regions outside of the East Midlands.
About EMPSC
The East Midlands Patient Safety Collaborative (EMPSC) is funded by NHS Improvement and hosted by the East Midlands Academic Health Science Network (EMAHSN) – it is one of 15 PSCs in England working across the health and care system. www.healthinnovation-em.org.uk
About NHS Improvement
NHS Improvement is responsible for overseeing foundation trusts and NHS trusts, as well as independent providers that provide NHS-funded care. It offers the support providers need to give patients consistently safe, high quality, compassionate care within local health systems that are financially sustainable. By holding providers to account and, where necessary, intervening, it helps the NHS to meet its short-term challenges and secure its future. www.improvement.nhs.uk
Since 1 April 2016, NHS Improvement has been the operational name for an organisation that brings together the work previously delivered by:
[i] www.cqc.org.uk/sites/default/files/new_reports/INS2-2473589447.pdf www.cqc.org.uk/sites/default/files/new_reports/INS2-2488744553.pdf