Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust was rated as requires improvement in July 2014.
Daily safety huddles involve ward teams discussing one or more patient harms such as falls, pressure ulcers and avoidable deterioration. Huddles last for five to ten minutes and focus around an area they are worried about. They review data and learning, for example to understand how the last patient fell.
The huddles include regularly measuring progress and celebrating success, helping teams to continually learn and improve.
Ward staff report that huddles encourage healthy competition between wards, for example on the number of days passed without a patient falling. Posters show a record of the number of days since the last harm event, and improvement charts track progress. Good safety performance is recognised and teams receive certificates when they achieve milestones.
In October 2016:
- Of wards that had huddles on falls, 65% saw a steep reduction in falls
- Nine of the 20 wards focusing on pressure ulcers achieved their longest stretch between a pressure ulcer occurring since before huddles were introduced
The trust was rated as good in September 2016.