Hospitals PROV-ing they’ve got the goods

Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Hospitals across the state went head-to-head in a ‘shark-tank’ style event held in Brisbane last week.

PROV-ED, which stands for PRO-moting Value-based care in Emergency Departments, conducted its first Pitchfest, proudly sponsored by CEQ. Pitchfest provided hospitals with a unique way to showcase their successful models of care to a review panel, in the hopes their model will be chosen for ‘scale and spread’ which will see it implemented elsewhere in the state. PROV-ED is designed to identify and facilitate the expansion of ED models of care that deliver high value and/or reduce low value care. Supported by QEDSAP, Professor Louise Cullen and her team, from ACRE and IMPACT fame, PROV-ED will facilitate innovation and best-practice ED care across the state.

At Pitchfest, 16 presenters put forward their hospital’s model or initiative for consideration by an expert panel, comprised of (L-R):

review panel members
  • Jeffrey Reeves, Nursing Director Patient Flow Toowoomba Hospital
  • Tanya Milburn, Co-Principal Project Officer for PROV-ED
  • Emma Versluis, Coordinator of the Queensland Emergency Department Strategic Advisory Panel (QEDSAP)
  • Prof. Louise Cullen, Metro North Hospital and Health Service’s Emergency and Trauma Centre, Professional Lead, PROV-ED Project
  • Laureen Hines, acting Director Healthcare Improvement Unit, CEQ
  • Dr Andrew Staib, Physician at Princess Alexandra Hospital’s Emergency Department and Co-Chair QEDSAP.

The types of models varied from pathology, admissions, triage data in FirstNet, occupational violence, intravenous cannulation, and end of life care. Logan Hospital’s presentation on nursing scope was a crowd favourite, with some of their nursing team somewhat humorously comparing the difference nurses operating under expanded scope can have on patient outcomes and length of stay.

Laureen Hines said the review panel spent several hours deliberating on which project would be able to be expanded quickly across Queensland emergency departments. "It is amazing how many great projects are being undertaken at individual locations with only local benefits realised. We are hoping by raising the profile of the projects and actively supporting clinicians to implement these practice changes, every emergency department can realise benefits the across the state."

Prof. Cullen agreed. “The high quality of the resourceful frontline staffs’ initiatives shows that we have many internal solutions to improve care in the ED, and has made it very hard to select the successful ones to be promoted across Queensland Health.” Based on the success of the day, the panel said there was potential for the Pitchfest model to be expanded to other streams and system issues.

More information on PROV-ED can be found in our Improvement Exchange or read more CEQ news. To keep up to date with other news from Clinical Excellence Queensland you can subscribe to our mailing list or follow us on Twitter or Facebook.

Last updated: 9 May 2019