New project cutting waiting times for care home residents
A project which is cutting waiting times for care home patients in Bridgend, needing access to multidisciplinary advice, has been shortlisted in the Advancing Healthcare Awards Wales 2022.
Four Allied Health Professionals from Bridgend Community Integrated Services, Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB are shortlisted for the awards which are an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the important and innovative work of healthcare scientists and allied health professionals across Wales.
This Bevan Exemplar project showcases a new integrated way of providing swallowing, nutrition and medication management to care home residents to improve clinical outcomes, reduce unwarranted hospital admission and improve job satisfaction for health and social care staff.
In this pilot phase, the service was made available to over 260 care home residents in the Bridgend area. This is an integrated model that can be easily scaled up across Wales.
Sheiladen Aquino, Clinical Lead Speech & Language Therapist, is the project lead at CTM. She said: “Due to the pressures left by COVID-19 we are seeing increased waiting times in the care home sector, particularly for residents with swallowing difficulties that can result in malnutrition, non-adherence to medication and unplanned hospital admission.”
The project has three aims:
- to provide multidisciplinary training to care home staff to manage risks while health services are recovering after the pandemic,
- to co-design an efficient integrated clinical pathway with multiple stakeholders
- to explore comprehensive outcome measures to include efficiency, hospital avoidance and clinical outcomes
Sheiladen continued: “After training was provided as part of our project, care home staff improved their confidence in managing basic swallowing, nutrition and medication issues to effectively mitigate risks.
“They jointly conduct assessments using group video consultations via the Attend Anywhere online platform and collaboratively develop anticipatory care plans.
“We are seeing excellent results. A single referral method to access three specialist allied health professions has reduced GP input, eliminated multiple waitlists and resulted in 70% reduction in waiting times.
“Residents’ nutrition level, medication adherence and quality of life were maintained. The potential for unwarranted hospital admission was decreased by 50%.
“We also found that care home staff feel more valued and reported positive job satisfaction with this new way of working.”
SHeiladen is joined in the project team by Thomas Sauter, Clinical Lead Pharmacist, Lucy Marland, Specialised Care Home Lead Dietitian and Amber McCollum, Specialist Speech and Language Therapist.
01/11/2022