Around 80 East Midlands care homes have registered to take part in our Landelijke Prevalentiemeting Zorgkwaliteit (LPZ) Care Homes Harms Prevalence Audit in 2019, double the number of homes that participated last year.

The LPZ project works with care homes to introduce a tool which measures the prevalence of common care issues such as pressure ulcers, continence, nutrition, falls, restraint and pain. Routinely reviewing LPZ data, allows care homes to make improvements to the care they deliver and understand the issues affecting patient safety that they need to concentrate on.

The project was developed by Maastricht University in the Netherlands and is now used in Austria, Turkey and Switzerland. Care homes in the East Midlands are the first in the UK to use LPZ and have made significant improvements.

At an initial training event for the interested homes, over 140 care home professionals heard more about the audit and what it entails and were able to get advice from homes that have participated in the programme for a number of years. They were also introduced to a new ‘deterioration module’, with the aim of improving recognition, escalation and management of a patient to recognise and avoid symptoms of deterioration.

The 2019 audit will take place in November and involves homes submitting anonymised data, which is analysed using an algorithm and returned to them as a useful dashboard where they can easily compare their data with other homes across the region to better understand whether any care issues in their home are more prevalent than others. Participating homes will attend an event in February 2020 to interpret their data and work with the Patient Safety Collaborative to come up with an action plan for improvements. 

Eddie Alder, Head of Patient Safety for EMAHSN, said “The fact that so many more homes have registered to participate in LPZ this year speaks volumes about the reputation the project has gained from the homes that have taken part over the last few years and the improvements they have seen. We’re so pleased that so many more homes want to get involved, as we can reach even more care home residents and impact their safety. It shows a great commitment by care home professionals to understand the issues in their home and make a real difference to their residents.”

You can learn more about the programme and its impacts here.