Introduction of excellence reporting to City Hospitals Sunderland: The first 6 months

Sarah Gibb, Kay Hodgson, Karen Lapworth

DiscoverSafety in healthcare has focused on avoiding harm by learningfrom errors. Excellence in healthcare is highly prevalent butthere is a lack of formal systems to capture it. Adrian Plunkettand colleagues at Birmingham Children's Hospital recognised thisand created a system of Excellence Reporting with the aims ofidentifying, appreciating, studying and learning from episodes ofexcellence (www.learningfromexcellence.com).We introduceda similar system of Excellence Reporting at Sunderland RoyalHospital on the 14/2/17.

This takes the form of an online reporting tool using our UlyssesRisk Management System. The form captures: Who wasexcellent? What did they do? What does the reporter think wecan learn from this?

Those reported receive a verbatim copy of the episode ofexcellence personally signed by the hospital CEO. The systemis designed to redress the balance between reporting of errorsand recording episodes of excellence. It is hoped that we cancreate new opportunities for learning and and that by reflectingon positive events, improve staff resilience and morale. To datewe have had over 350 reported episodes of excellence atSunderland Royal Hospital.

DreamCurrently we feedback to the individuals reported as havingdemonstrated excellent practice but are keen to develop asystem for wider organisational learning.Followingdevelopment of the Sunderland and South Tyneside HealthcareAlliance it is planned to introduce Excellence Reporting to SouthTyneside General Hospital in the near future. This presents anopportunity to look at staff views on morale, appreciation andlearning before and after the introduction of a system ofcapturing excellence.Neighbouring Trusts have also beenestablishing similar systems which has given us the opportunityto begin to develop a regional collaborative.

Design/DestinyAppreciative Inquiry is a tool for change management whichfocuses on strengths. The team at Birmingham Children'sHospital has used this as a method to analyse some excellencereports in order to embed excellent practice into everydayworking. We have arranged training in Appreciative Inquiry withour regional collaborators for November 2017.We arecurrently undertaking a survey looking at staff views onexcellence reporting, impact of reporting and perceptions onlearning. Informal feedback has been very positive. We plan tostart to share learning through a feedback bulletin, a lessonslearned session and show case event with the Trust Innovationsteam.