150 East Midlands care home professionals and residents came together over afternoon tea, singing and dancing yesterday (29 August 2019) to celebrate winning a prestigious patient safety award.

 Since 2014, a number of care homes in the East Midlands have been taking part in an initiative to improve the care they deliver. The Landielijke Pravelentiemeting Zorgkwaliteit (LPZ) - Care Homes Harms Prevalence Audit Tool was developed by Maastricht University in the Netherlands. LPZ, measures the prevalence of common care issues such as pressure ulcers, continence, nutrition, falls, restraint, pain and deterioration. Routinely reviewing LPZ data, allows nursing and residential homes to make improvements to the care they deliver resulting in reduced falls, reduced pressure ulcers, improved continence and pain management. Care homes in the East Midlands are the first in the UK to take part in the initiative and have made significant improvements to the care they deliver.

In recognition of its success, earlier this year the programme won the Patient Safety Education and Training Award at the annual HSJ Patient Safety Awards ceremony. The initiative was also shortlisted for the Patient Safety in the Community and Improving Care for Older People Awards.

Judges commented “This collaborative project demonstrated innovation, a clear project process and fantastic outcomes which are clearly seen by the patients. The judges specifically liked the fact this project was driven through a bottom up approach.”

The initiative is delivered by the East Midlands Patient Safety Collaborative which is hosted by the East Midlands Academic Health Science Network (EMAHSN). It is one of 15 PSCs in England working to make care safer for all.

Care home residents and staff sang along and danced to music from the 1940s and 50s performed by a live act and had their pick of sandwiches and cakes as part of the afternoon tea. Care homes currently participating in the initiative brought along neighbouring care homes not currently participating, to encourage them to take part in the initiative to build on the successes of the programme.  

EMAHSN Managing Director Mike Hannay said “Care home professionals are at the heart of this programme and are the reason for its success, and it couldn’t be delivered without their hard work and willingness to make improvements. The event today just highlighted the reason why our Patient Safety Collaborative deliver this initiative, the job satisfaction it can bring to care home professionals and safety benefits to patients are immense. We look forward to taking the programme even further over the next year.”

Find out more on our LPZ project pages.