Dr Helen Elliott-Mainwaring
University of Leicester
The role of visual management tools for the coordination of teams in healthcare (Project complete)
Background
Patient safety within Maternity Services in England is currently compromised, and the drive for digitalisation is intended to improve healthcare service provision. This project explored staff experiences of the transition to digitalisation during the Global Covid Pandemic, using specific visual tools as a lens for enquiry. Three familiar escalation tools were considered: early warning scores, sepsis, and SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation). These escalation tools are used to relay information quickly, incorporating situational awareness, monitoring, coordination, and patient rescue.
Approach
A neo-pragmatic Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE) approach using humancentric Socio-Technical Systems (STS) theory was used as a framework for analysis, incorporating adaptations of both SEIPS (Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety) and Shorrock’s Varieties of Human Work. 55 staff experiences of escalation, with 20 National Reports and 17 guidelines were compared. Findings have shown that poor implementation in the digitalising of escalation visual management tools (VMTs) has the potential to negatively influence the quality of information being recorded by staff. Therefore, the system outcomes are likely to evidence poor equitability amongst both care providers and patients’ receiving care.
Helen’s virtual ePoster and oral presentation for RCOG World Congress 2023:
Elliott-Mainwaring, H; Bateman, N; Mackintosh, N (2023) What is asking for help like for staff working in maternity services? Research abstract PP.0016. BJOG (British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology): Top Scoring Abstracts of the RCOG World Congress 2023 Special Issue – Quality Improvement. 13 June Vol 130 Issue 52 p.174 https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-0528.21_17521