Dec 14, 2018
Martin Jeffries, Chief Marketing Officer at Tunstall Healthcare, congratulates NHS Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group on their recent Health Business Award win.
Last week saw NHS Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group’s Quest for Quality in Care Homes, which is supported by Tunstall, were recognised with a Health Business Award. The programme beat three other finalists to win the Telehealth category, and Tunstall colleagues were on hand to collect the prestigious Award on behalf of the CCG.
The awards strive to identify examples of excellence and best practice in all areas of the National Health Service, and recognise the many examples of innovation and excellence that happen every day. Presented by comedian and former Doctor Adam Richard Kay, NHS Trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups attended a ceremony at the Grange Hotel in London.
The Quest for Quality in Care Homes initiative has involved 1300 care home residents over the past five years, with a multidisciplinary team and care home staff working to improve care and prevent avoidable emergency hospital attendances and admissions – typically for urinary tract and respiratory infections, falls and fractures. The programme uses Tunstall technology to support individual care plans for residents, enabling a more preventative and integrated approach.
Evaluation of the first two years of the programme (2014-16) showed:
The latest results from the Quest for Quality in Care Homes programme show how telecare is helping to prevent falls in care homes. In the last year (2016/17 to 2017/18) emergency admissions relating to falls have decreased by 7.7% which has resulted in an annual saving through the Quest programme of more than £200,000.
This isn’t the first time the programme has been recognised; it was recently shortlisted for both the Innovation in Technology LaingBuisson 2018 Award and the TEC Services Association’s Integrated TEC Services Award. It was also the subject of an in-depth study which combined the results of large scale initiatives with national government data to model the impact of using clinically-led, technology-enabled models in care homes. The study found that this approach could release £1billion NHS capacity a year if deployed on a national scale.
The Quest for Quality in Care Homes is great example of how taking an innovative approach and working in partnership can deliver real change. Congratulations to everyone involved in the programme at both NHS Calderdale CCG and here at Tunstall.
