Hi all, 

I wanted to share some new SusQI case studies with you. We recently collaborated with Sheffield Teaching Hospitals (STH) NHS FT, and for the second time, Northampton General Hospital (NGH) NHS Trust in our Green Team Competition programme. The competitions each have anticipated annual savings of between £85,712-£252,864 and 34,000-40,172 kgCO2e (equivalent to driving over 100,000 miles in an average car).

Northampton’s winning team, Hand Therapy, improved patient outcomes (reduced complications and faster return to baseline function post-op) while saving significant amounts of staff time across the MDT (consultants, nurses, hand therapists and admin) through a simple pathway change.

At STH, the winning team implemented reusable tourniquets with positive staff and patient feedback.

Other entries also contributed to improving patient care while reducing environmental harm, for example by

• reducing rates of catheter-associated infections
• improving comfort and rates of successful bowel prep for colonoscopy procedures
• reducing low value paracetamol use and tablet burden for patients in a palliative care unit.

The 12 new case studies are in the CSH resource library (along with all green team projects) – please share them with your colleagues or use them as examples through your meetings/trainings, etc. Please do get in touch if you have any questions about the projects and methodology used. 

I will leave you with the perspective of Clare Topping, Head of Sustainability at NGH who summarised the benefits to NGH, patients and staff;

This is the second time we have taken part in the Green Team Competition and we have seen some amazing entries and evidence of improved sustainability and patient outcomes. It gives our colleagues, no matter what their role, an opportunity to have support in trying new ideas and to take ownership of leading change. Many of the ideas have wider benefits too and are shared with other hospitals and healthcare providers locally, nationally and internationally. 

Best wishes,

Rachel

SusQI lead for competitions and specialty challenges, CSH