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The 2005 New Zealand Health Innovation Awards Ceremony was held on the 30th June 2005 in Wellington.
The winners from the Canterbury DHB were:
| Individual Award winner | Optimising Sedation in Critically Ill Patients |
| Organisation Award Highly Commended Award | The Purpose and Goals of Energy Management in a Health Care Environment |
The remaining finalists from the Canterbury DHB were:
| Nurse Maude Association Leg Ulcer Clinic: Innovating from the inside out |
| Review of Timeframes in which Discharge Letters are Posted to General Practitioners in General Medicine |
Optimising Sedation in Critically Ill Patients
A new sedation system is ensuring critically ill patients in Christchurch
Hospital's Intensive Care Unit have better pain control, and nursing and medical
staff are finding administering sedatives both safer and easier.
It is common for patients to be over-sedated, which can mean poorer results for
the patient, longer stays in intensive care and increased costs for the health
system.
A small team at Christchurch Hospital drew together clinical and engineering
skills to develop and implement a simple standardised method for delivering a
satisfactory level of sedation.
The team developed a paper calculation for working out appropriate drug doses.
This was discussed with nursing staff to make sure they had a clear
understanding about how it worked.
Then they built a device, the Infuse-Rite, to provide a simple means to give
patients a combination of drugs to prepare for a stressful procedure.
The Infuse-Rite has become the standard of care in managing sedation. The
hospital now has 10 units and has used them on more than 600 patients for
periods ranging from a few hours up to 32 days. This project also won the
'Supreme Award' and 'Hospital and Specialist Service Category' in the
2004
Canterbury DHB Quality and Innovation Awards. Contact:
Dr Geoff Shaw
The Purpose and Goals of Energy Management in a Health Care Environment
An energy-saving drive at Christchurch hospital has saved $180,000 that can now
be used to fund patient care and lead to more comfortable conditions for people
using the hospital buildings.
The saving resulted from many changes - for example during the power crisis in
2004, lamps were removed from a number of light fittings throughout the
hospital. This resulted in reducing the electricity used, while light levels in
corridors and common areas remained above OSH standards.
When the power crisis was over, nearly all the light fittings that had lamps
removed, were upgraded to new technology tubes and more energy efficient
controls.
Other energy saving efforts included using a computerised air-conditioning plant
and managing lighting so vacant areas were not using energy.
A clear strategy for energy management is vital to controlling expense within an
organisation.
Christchurch Hospital now has a fully comprehensive energy management strategy
in place and this, together with a detailed monitoring and targeting regime, has
ensured that the performance indicators for energy have continued to improve
despite rapid development of the site and challenges posed by severe weather
patterns. This project also won the 'Hospital and Specialist Service' category
at the 2004 Canterbury DHB Quality and Innovation Awards. Contact:
Alan Bavis
Nurse Maude Association Leg Ulcer Clinic: Innovating from the inside out
Canterbury's older people suffering from leg ulcers are enjoying improved
quality of life thanks to the development of a specialist community-based
nursing clinic.
People with leg ulcers can suffer from lack of mobility, social isolation,
depression and poor quality of life. Many people need repeat hospital treatment
for infections and plastic surgery.
Establishing the leg ulcer clinic and providing specialist nursing services in
the community has gone a considerable way towards remedying the situation.
The Nurse Maude Association Clinic was established in collaboration with
Christchurch Hospital's vascular services. Treating older people with ulcers at
the clinic is helping to prevent clinical complications which in turn reduces
the need for more expensive inpatient care and additional pharmaceuticals.
The use of compression therapy to treat leg ulcers means many patients receive
compression bandaging once a week compared to the traditional regime which often
required daily visits to get dressings changed.
Introducing the community-based service is also freeing up more time for acute
vascular patients to get hospital based treatment.
The Nurse Maude Association has been delivering community health care for more
than l00 years. The NMA has some 14,000 clients in the community and employs
1,300 staff. Contact: Sheree East
Review of timeframes in which discharge letters are posted to general
practitioners in general medicine
An improved system for sending patient discharge letters from hospital to GPs
has led to better ongoing care for patients.
The Department of General Medicine at Christchurch Hospital provides an acute
patient service for 7,500 patients every year. For most of those patients a
typed discharge letter is sent to their GP after they leave hospital. The letter
provides information for the GP to help them care for the patient.
Normally the letters are sent after the patient notes have been coded. This has
meant the letters are often delayed and could take weeks or months to get to the
GP.
Under the new system registrars dictated the letters on the ward within three
days of sending the patient home.
So far the new system has cut the average time for letters to reach GPs from
37.8 days to 19.5 working days. In addition staff are receiving good feedback on
the new system. This project also won the Highly Commended Award in the
2004
Canterbury DHB Quality and Innovation Awards.