Harm Free Care Pilot
Marie McDermott
Harm Free Care Project Manager
Rationale for Harm Free Care Pilot
•Care homes are a critically important element of the
Norfolk health economy
•193 care homes with immense diversity and complexity
•Ageing population – increasing complexity of resident
needs in both nursing and residential homes – less
distinction between the two types of home
•Increasing pressure on community services for the old
and frail especially for nursing and therapy teams and
GPs
•Risk of deterioration of frail elderly, lack of clear pathway
management leading to inappropriate and unnecessary
hospital admissions
For whom is this issue important?
Patients/ Inconsistent standards, lack of personalised Harm Free Care
families planning and limited awareness of what “safe” looks like
Care
Home
staff
Willingness and commitment undermined by low staffing numbers,
high turnover, increasingly complex patients and access to
training/urgent care services
CCG/GPs
Varying clarity about what good care home support looks like and how
to manage individual and joint responsibilities for both GPs and the
care home staff 24/7
Public
Health
High number of falls callouts and incidents that could potentially be
dealt with by care homes staff. Ambulance potentially used as
safeguarding backup.
Service
providers
Increased number of Grade 2 Pressure Ulcers , Falls and Catheter
Acquired Infections within volunteer care homes
The Starting Point
•
Identify the variability within the pilot homes in the quality of
the fundamentals of care in relation to the three harms;
requiring a strategic approach for the frail elderly within care
homes. (CSU,NCH&C. NCC)
• Enable partnership working with stakeholders to ensure an
integrated approach and effective lines of accountability for
service transformation changes .(CCGS, GPs, Third sector
organisations)
• Develop a robust project plan/ initiation document based upon
qualitative and quantitative intelligence.
•
Engage Care Home Managers and teams to support service
improvement through the development and implementation a of
Harm Free Care bespoke Toolkit
Key Project Outcomes
•
To Promote the safety and well being of all residents within the
volunteer Care Homes
•
To design and implement early intervention tools to identify
deterioration and prevent harm for the frail and elderly
•
To develop opportunities to coordinate integrated care to drive service
improvement through sustained engagement
•
To reduce the number of unnecessary and inappropriate admissions
to acute services from care homes,
Activity Undertaken to Date
Work with care
homes and build
on examples of
good practice
Qualitative
and
quantitative
information
Dynamic
Project
management
approach – to
deliver specific
outcomes
Partnership working
across NCH&C and
NCC\CCG’s
Patient
centric
Quality of
care
Collaborative Commissioning
• Working together locally to deliver
sustainable excellence in healthcare
• Learning from others – Skincare
programme/Oxfordshire, Harm free
care/Norfolk /Windsor ,Ascot &
Maidenhead