Collaborative working empowers staff to cut the number of cardiac arrests

Donaldson, Emma MBChB, MA
Murphy, Peter MA, RGN

Emma Donaldson, MBChB, MA, is quality improvement research fellow, Salford Royal Foundation Trust; Peter Murphy, MA, RGN, is assistant director of nursing services, quality improvement, Salford Royal Foundation Trust, and core adviser to Patient Safety First.

Nursing Times 105(47):p 17-19, December 1, 2009.

ABSTRACT

Donaldson E, Murphy P (2009) Collaborative working empowers staff to cut the number of cardiac arrests. Nursing Times; 105: 47, 17-19.

Problem:

At Salford Royal Foundation Trust, 179 patients suffered a cardiac arrest between March 2007 and April 2008.

Main measures for improvement:

Our primary outcome measure was the number of cardiac arrests per 1,000 admissions.

Strategies for change:

Eleven wards were invited to participate in a Breakthrough Series collaborative from April 2008 to January 2009. It is a short term (6-15 months) learning system that brings together several teams to seek improvement, focusing on one topic. Frontline teams worked to develop changes in their clinical areas with the aim of reducing cardiac arrests by 50% in one year.

Results:

April-December 2008 saw a reduction of 32% in the cardiac arrest rate, resulting in an average arrest rate of 0.79 per 1,000 admissions. Since the project began to upscale its work in January 2009, a further reduction has been noted. However, another 4 months' data is required to assess whether this equates to a sustained change.

Conclusion:

Preliminary data suggests that a Breakthrough Series collaborative is an effective method of engaging frontline staff in developing and implementing change, with improvements in patient care.

A Breakthrough Series collaborative was used to engage staff to change their clinical area, which has resulted in cardiac arrests being viewed as never events