Could it happen here? Safe and effective message taking and recording

Could it happen here campaign Why put patient safety first? Why learn from others? Quality is: Patient safety, patient experience and clinical outcomes. The public expect the NHS to learn, improve and share good practice. Care should include – assessment, prevention, treatment, education and communication delivered with compassion and empathy.

Could it happen here campaign What happened? Following a child death in Hampshire, a Serious Case Review was undertaken. During the investigation it was found that staff in a Child Health Team did not have a robust process for the taking and recording of messages from clients. Contact between parents of the child and the Child Health Team was not recorded in RIO. The outcome of this meant there was missing vital evidence which could have been used in the subsequent court case.

Could it happen here campaign What worked well? Clinical Record Steering Group met to develop message taking process for both adult and child clients All members of child health team were represented including admin in the development and implementation of the new process An emphasis was on safe clinical record keeping with a transparent process in place that all clinicians and admin could undertake

Could it happen here campaign What did we learn?-across all teams, across all Divisions…. Teams require a clear and transparent process of taking messages that can be recorded, actioned and audited RIO is used by other health services and should be the single point of entry for information held on children and adults in order to assess and provide effective care planning We can provide a more responsive service to children and adults as vital information is stored securely enabling it to be shared if necessary to support the safeguarding of our patients and service users

Could it happen here campaign What are we doing differently? A process was developed with a team approach to include admin. A formal message template was produced with clear guidelines on completing and actioning. This ensures clinical record keeping is adhered to by all team members and keeps the child safe by accurate and timely clinical entries Open and honest team approach to learning and sharing Clarity around the importance of recording all contacts with clients as evidence of our planning their care

Could it happen here campaign Discussion – 10mins Could it happen here? What was the effect to patient safety, patient experience and clinical outcome? Is it acceptable to your professional and organisation values?

Could it happen here campaign How do we prevent the incident happening again? How do we introduce good practice? How do we embed and audit good practice? Discussion 10mins

Could it happen here campaign What have you learnt from this incident? What will you do differently to improve patient safety, patient experience and clinical outcome? What 3 things will you do today to ensure it doesn’t happen here?