Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust wins innovation awards

The awards, launched by the East Midlands Academic Health Science Network, recognise and celebrate the work of NHS organisations, universities, charities, councils and businesses to develop new and better delivery of healthcare services.

The Electronic Integrated Care Pathway (e-ICP) at Rampton Hospital won the Software & Telehealth Award. The e-ICP provides a centralised electronic record of the patient’s care pathway across all six clinical services at Rampton Hospital.

The technology improves the patient experience, reducing waiting times for admission, treatment and discharge, improving access to activities and treatment, and reducing the patient’s length of stay.

Ilona Kruppa, Clinical Director, Mental Health and Learning Disability at Rampton Hospital and lead for the project said: “The e-ICP Project Team is thrilled to win this award and to receive this recognition for our work. As there were no similar solutions for us to base our work upon, the project has been demanding and continues to pose challenges on a daily basis, but it has also been rewarding and our achievements have been due to a real team effort.

“It was great to be a part of the fantastic ceremony last night! I am very proud of the team and all we have achieved.”

The Trust also won the award in the Patient Dignity and Experience category, in partnership with the University of Nottingham for “GtACH” (Guide to Action Care Home), a fall prevention programme in care homes for the elderly.

The programme provides advice, training and resources to care home staff to help assess the risks of falls and take preventative action.

Kate Robertson, Consultant Therapist in Falls Prevention and lead for the project said: “We were delighted to win the award. Falls can be very debilitating and worrying for older people so we are always looking a new ways we can help to reduce them.

“Building on what we have learnt we will now look at implementing this into other clinical areas across the Trust.”

The winner in each category will receive a £2,000 prize to help develop their innovation.

Over 90 entries were submitted across six categories, with 18 finalists. As well as winning two of the awards a project at Wathwood Hospital was also shortlisted in the Patient Dignity and Experience Award category for enhancing service user’s experience through social networks.

Ruth Hawkins, Chief Executive Designate said: “I am extremely proud that we won the Software and Telehealth Award and the Patient Dignity and Experience Award (in partnership with the University of Nottingham) and I would like to congratulate the teams involved. For three of our projects to be shortlisted was fantastic and we fought off tough competition from a number of great innovative projects from the region to win two awards.

“Winning the awards further acknowledges the Trust’s commitment to innovation to ensure we continue to provide the very best experience for our patients, service users and carers.”