AMaT case studies

AMaT helps improve patient care for Urgent Treatment Centres

How Derbyshire Community’s Urgent Treatment Centres used AMaT to make a difference to patient care.

The Urgent Treatment Centres (UTC) at Derbyshire Community Health Services have consolidated, streamlined, and re-invented their local audits with AMaT.

"Varying people were looking at various pieces of paper," says UTC Training & Development Lead, Neil Jones. "What we wanted to do with the project was to refine this."

Before the project began audits were mostly carried out on paper, with no central repository for information. To achieve his goal, Neil approached the Improvement Innovation and Effectiveness Team (IIET) for assistance. He was helped by Data Analyst and QSIR practitioner Cassandra Dye, and Improvement, Innovation and Effectiveness Facilitator, Vicki Barsby.

AMaT had already shown that it could highlight ‘red areas’, those places where improvements are needed or could be made, whilst assisting with how services are measured. Working together, the IIET and UTC could ensure this model was replicated with similarly positive outcomes, so it was a considered to be a logical part of the solution.

AMaT was the vehicle that enabled a collaborative approach to audit. Vicki Barsby, Improvement, Innovation and Effectiveness Facilitator

There was also the benefit of AMaT being well-embedded in the Trust and widely utilised to reduce the duplication of audits whilst improving access and visibility. For the UTC to want to mirror this was a testament to the work done by the IIET, showing how good communication had raised awareness of the system’s benefits.

Collaborating for improvement

Working together, the UTC and IIET began to work through the PDSA Cycle: Plan. Do. Study. Act. Both teams examined the existing UTC audits, and began to revise them to ensure they were fit for purpose. As Cassandra points out, "are you asking the right question for what you're expecting out of it?"

The emphasis was on creating audits where the outputs were measurable, and which accurately reflected what was being seen in the UTC. Beginning with Peer Review and X-ray, the audits were set up using the Clinical Audit module of AMaT, one of seven modules on the system which also covers: Ward & Area auditing, Quality Improvement, Inspections, Guidance, Cumulative audit, and Mortality and Morbidity Reviews.

All this effort generated positive momentum and the teams used this to relaunch the Effective Documentation Review (EDR) throughout the Urgent Treatment Centres. From this point, AMaT’s easily accessible platform helped the project achieve some of the team’s wider goals such as collaboration and engagement.

After this, the work snowballed. Other audits followed and the impact of the UTC project became a powerful example of what could be done, a "shining beacon" as Vicki says.

Including everyone

The logistical challenge to this project cannot be understated; Derbyshire Community Health is an organisation which spreads across a massive geographical area. Popping down the corridor was not an option.

When you do a project, you need to share it with staff to ultimately make a difference to patient care. Neil Jones, UTC Training & Development Lead

This was not a problem for AMaT because it is a cloud-based system, which could be accessed by every member of staff within the Trust regardless of location. As Vicki says, "AMaT was the vehicle that enabled a collaborative approach to audit and so made it much more accessible for staff in the UTCs"

Neil agrees: "That’s the ‘so what’. When you do a project, you need to share it with staff to ultimately make a difference to patient care." AMaT’s availability across the Trust ensured there would no problem with that sharing.

A lasting change

Clinicians now regularly engage with AMaT which has led to new projects and new ideas as people become more aware of the improvements the system can help them deliver. Reviewing the outcomes after launch, the new UTC Audit Suite on AMaT was regarded as a success, suggesting the initiative is having a lasting impact.

Utilising AMaT’s powerful feature set certainly made it easier to carry out the project, and the team were delighted with what they achieved. Vicki sums it up, noting that "it's when you step back and sort of go, wow, we did a lot. It's humbling sometimes and is definitely worth celebrating."

AMaT helps:

  • Underpin quality improvement programmes from ward to board
  • Prepare for and respond to Care Quality Commission inspections
  • Provide a searchable, holistic view of your organisation's quality activity
  • Measure quality progress over time
  • Ensure actions are recorded and that progress is monitored
  • Users stay on top of their tasks with system driven prompts
  • Empower staff to be a driving force in quality improvement
  • Improve and manage compliance with NICE standards
  • Support national and local audits, service evaluations, and regular assurance audits across wards and services
  • Provide simple access to supporting evidence for your projects
  • Reduce reliance on paper chasing for audit progress
  • Save money by providing a flexible platform for improvement activity
  • Save time by generating activity reports across multiple departments

Download the Derbyshire Community NHS Trust case study


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