Mid West team wins HSE Excellence Award for collaborative innovation in healthcare

Right Care, Right Place, Right Time award for ‘My Perinatal Self Care – Taking Care of Me’

Monday 2nd December, 2024 ¦ AN INNOVATIVE HSE Mid West self-care project devised in collaboration with service-users in the region won the ‘Right Care, Right Place, Right Time: Sláintecare’ at the HSE Excellence Awards in Farmleigh House, Dublin’s Phoenix Park, last week.

The winning project is ‘My Perinatal Self Care – Taking Care of Me’, which was devised by personnel and service-users at the Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Service at University Maternity Hospital Limerick, Mid West ARIES and Mental Health Services in the region.

This was just one of a number of awards presented at the national HSE Excellence Awards on November 28th, a showcase and celebration of the great work that happens every day across our health service. The awards aim to encourage and inspire health service staff to develop and improve care and services for patients.

‘My Perinatal Self Care – Taking Care of Me’ is the brainchild of Mid West ARIES, Mental Health Services and the Specialist Perinatal Mental Health team at University Maternity Hospital Limerick (UMHL), co-produced with SPMH service-users.

The project, encompassing a workbook, companion course, audiobook and animations. In its audiobook form—freely available at https://tinyurl.com/Perinatal-Self-Care-Audiobook— it provides an accessible ‘any place, any time’ option for those who wish to make use of the resource while on the go or at home. The project emerged from the feedback of participants in a workshop on perinatal self-care, which included requests for resources and practical support on implementing a daily self-care routine.

WATCH: learn more about ‘My Perinatal Self Care – Taking Care of Me’ here: https://youtu.be/dVxqe4JiW9k

Welcoming the news, project lead, Michael O’Neill, Manager, Mid West ARIES, said: “We are delighted that our co-produced recovery education initiative has been recognised at the HSE Excellence Awards – the first project of its kind to achieve this distinction. We are particularly proud to have won in the Sláintecare category, reflecting the principles of “right care, right place, right time.” I would like to take this opportunity to thank our team for their dedication to delivering excellence in education and the women who helped to co-produce the resources included in the programme. We could not have done this without your support.”

The HSE Mid West team shares the ‘Right Care, Right Place, Right Time’ award with joint winners, the Meath Specialist Lymphoedema Clinic in the HSE Dublin and North East healthcare region.

A diverse range of other innovative projects were entered into this year’s awards, including:

• Standardising practice for public health nurses visits for postnatal care
• New ways of working to support hospital avoidance for COPD patients
• Reduction in wound infection in patients undergoing invasive vessel harvesting
• New localised supports for climate action change

Bernard Gloster, HSE CEO, commending all the winners, said, “These awards create the opportunity to show innovation and creativity, which ultimately improves the services that we provide. Well done and thank you to all those short-listed as well as the winners. It is your work that helps pave the way to a brighter future for Ireland’s health service.”

Anne Marie Hoey, HSE Chief People Officer, highlighting the positive outcomes achieved,said, “As well as providing an opportunity to recognise the great work of staff and teams across our wide range of services, the Excellence Awards is an important channel to share learnings with our colleagues across the health service.

“Through this pooling of knowledge and expertise, the projects inspire a sense of staff pride, teamwork and collaboration. This will positively impact the overall environment for our staff whilst improving outcomes for the people who rely on our care and support.”

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NOTES FOR EDITORS – full list of winners:

HSE Excellence Award Winners 2024:

Right Care Right Place Right Time – Sláintecare

Joint category winner: Mid West Community Healthcare

Project titled: My Perinatal Self Care – Taking Care of Me project.

A cross-service collaboration between Mid West ARIES and the Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Team (SPMHT), University Maternity Hospital Limerick began in April 2023 with a wellbeing workshop for women attending SPMHT.

Participants requested practical support on how to implement a daily self-care routine. A follow-up survey identified needs and resources including a co-produced self-care workbook.

Joint category winner: The Meath Specialist Lymphoedema Clinic, HSE Dublin and North East

Project titled: Proof of concept initiative - Establish community based Specialist Lymphoedema Clinic

Speaking about this project, Thelma Dunne, Senior Physiotherapist, Specialist Lymphoedema Clinic said: “The aim of this service as per the model of care was to assess, treat, and manage clients with lymphoedema living in County Meath. To improve the quality of life for clients living with lymphoedema. Also, to reduce the GP visits, public health nurse visits, risk of cellultis and reducing hospital admissions.”

Excellence in Quality and Patient Safety

Category winner: Public Health Nursing Primary Care, Corporate/National Services

Project titled: ‘Standardised maternal postnatal care in the Public Health Nursing Service’.

Public health nurses are mandated to visit families within 72 hours of discharge from the maternity services. This encompasses a comprehensive assessment of the postnatal mother. Preceding the development of this initiative, practices varied in relation to this assessment. There was no national guideline on maternal postnatal care and there were 13 different maternal postnatal records in use in the country.

Improving Patient Experience

Category winner: CARE Community Virtual Ward, HSE West and North West

Project titled: ‘CARE—Community and Acute Respiratory Excellence Healthcare initiative’.

COPD hospital care in Ireland costs €90 million annually with multiple readmissions and little alternative to hospital care available. A proof of concept for a Community Virtual Ward ICT system, incorporating respiratory rate trends, was designed with a small cohort of patients and was highly successful, achieving 100% hospital avoidance. Sláintecare funded the model's expansion to all COPD patients in Donegal in May 2023.

Innovation in Service Delivery

Category winner: The Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery in University Hospital Galway, HSE West and North West

Project titled: ‘Minimally Invasive Vessel Harvesting for Coronary Artery Bypass Grafts Surgery’.

Describing their project the team said: “Our unit's leg wound infection rate was up to 7% with open vein harvesting. We have reduced the wound infection rate from 7% to 0% with the introduction of minimally invasive vessel harvesting while maintaining our excellent clinical outcomes and improving patient satisfaction from the cosmesis of their wound and the avoidance of post-operative complications”.

Engaging a Digital Solution

Category winner: St James's Hospital, HSE Dublin and Midlands

Project titled: ‘Visual Hospital Management System improves patient flow and bed management’

Previously, St James’s Hospital (SJH) patient flow processes were fragmented and manual, requiring high volumes of staff time to identify and communicate bed management matters. Additionally, no forum existed for multi-disciplinary teams to proactively coordinate discharges. A digital solution to visualise patient flow, reduce cumbersome processes and improve communication was proposed. The results was their project patient flow and bed management.

Working together for a Greener Health Service

Category winner: Prosper Group, HSE Dublin and North East

Project titled: ‘Energy Management Sustainability initiative within the Prospect Group’

Prosper Group provides supports to 530 adults with intellectual disabilities across Fingal and Meath. The issue of climate action came to the fore with growing concerns of the organisation's carbon footprint, energy costs and the disproportionate impact that climate change has on the individuals that they support.

Pat Lacey, Procurement Officer, Prosper Group said: “The Energy Management Sustainability initiative within the Prosper Group has been monumental. It has helped in so many ways, staff and service users in entering into a world where service users not just believe that they can be involved in a movement to change but that they can actually drive it.”

The 2024 award ceremony took place on Thursday, 28 November 2024 in Farmleigh House, Dublin’s Phoenix Park. For further information, see www.hse.ie/excellenceawards and follow #HSEExcellenceAwards24 on @HSE_HR on X.

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WATCH - Learn more about the projects here: