Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust established a vision to become the safest organisation in the NHS. It has achieved this by aspiring to provide safe, clean and personal care to every patient, every time.
The chief executive has been in post for over 12 years (compared with the two-year average tenure for chief executives). The organisation has a comprehensive quality improvement (QI) strategy and the board decides every year what to improve, by how much and by when. There is particular emphasis on making QI information available and accessible for all staff members, empowering them to take the lead in initiatives for their areas.
Driver diagrams identify the primary and secondary drivers of improvement, and staff directly initiate and sustain improvements, supported by in-house QI experts. Learning from others both inside and outside the organisation is championed, exemplified by the establishment of NHS Quest, a network of 14 NHS organisations focused on cross-organisational learning for QI.
Salford tracks QI performance and compares performance with that of other NHS organisations, for example, on ratios (HSMRs), readmissions and harms. The Trust openly displays data on safety and quality in each ward as well as information on required and actual staffing levels. Every bed has a white board beside it on hospital standardised mortality which patients and family members can record what matters to them.
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