An NHS trust has been shortlisted for a prestigious patient safety award, for their data-driven improvements in the length of stay of hospital patients.
Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust are shortlisted for the Advancing Patient Safety with Data and Analytics Award, a HSJ Patient Safety Awards category which celebrates initiatives that have successfully leveraged data and analytics to make meaningful improvements in patient care.
The Trust are being recognised for their Medicines Length of Stay Programme, made up of a multi-disciplinary team which identified opportunities to use data to improve the patient transfer process.
This led to the creation of an innovative data-driven platform, the Patient Flow Insights Tool (PFIT), to help teams manage discharges and patient flow.
Developed in 2024, the tool is a visual dashboard which pulls together data from different systems for all adult inpatients, which can be filtered by length of stay, patient pathway or discharge criteria. The tool has helped pinpoint where resources should be directed, to support timely discharges.
The introduction of PFIT has led to lower rates of bed occupancy, reducing delays from A&E to inpatient wards and minimising the risk of patient safety.
The length of stay of patients during the 2024/25 winter period has reduced by six per cent, in comparison to the previous year.
The Trust have also reduced the number of patients staying in the admissions unit over two nights from 86 per cent to 63 per cent and reduced the number of short stay patients waiting over three nights for a transfer to a specialist ward to 42 per cent.
PFIT is now widely used by discharge teams, ward managers, matrons, and patient flow co-ordinators to ensure the safe and timely discharge of patients.
It has been expanded to teams within surgery and community services, and work is underway to explore its use at other neighbouring NHS trusts within Birmingham and the Black Country.
Justine Irish, Deputy Group Director of Nursing Medicine and Emergency Care said: “We’re incredibly proud to be shortlisted for the HSJ Patient Safety Awards.
“The Medicines Length of Stay Programme was launched with the aim of ensuring patients didn’t remain in hospital longer than necessary.
“This recognition reflects the dedication of our team to improving patient outcomes and delivering safer, more effective care every day.”
The HSJ Patient Safety Awards will take place on 15 September in Manchester.