HSE Excellence Awards showcase staff innovations for improved healthcare

The HSE celebrated staff innovation at the annual Health Service Excellence Awards which took place at Farmleigh House yesterday. The awards are an opportunity to showcase and celebrate examples of the great work that happens every day across our health service. They also aim to inspire health service staff to develop and improve care and services for patients.

A diverse range of projects were entered into this year’s awards, including:

• New practical supports for women attending specialist perinatal mental health services
• Improvements for people living with lymphoedema
• Standardising practice for public health nurses visits for postnatal care
• New ways of working to support hospital avoidance for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease patients
• Reduction in wound infection in patients undergoing invasive vessel harvesting
• New localised supports for climate action change.

Bernard Gloster, HSE CEO, commending the winners, said, “These awards create the opportunity to showcase out staff’s innovation and creativity, which ultimately improves the services that we provide and the overall health experience for our patients. Well done and thank you to all those short-listed as well as the winners. It is your work that helps pave the way to a brighter future for Ireland’s health service.”

Anne Marie Hoey, HSE Chief People Officer, highlighting the positive outcomes achieved, said, “As well as providing an opportunity to recognise the great work of staff and teams across our wide range of services, the Excellence Awards is an important channel to share learnings with our colleagues across the health service.

“Through this pooling of knowledge and expertise, the projects inspire a sense of staff pride, teamwork and collaboration. This will positively impact the overall environment for our staff whilst improving outcomes for the people who rely on our care and support.”

HSE Excellence Award Winners 2024

Right Care Right Place Right Time – Sláintecare

Joint category winner: Mid West Community Healthcare

Project titled: ‘My Perinatal Self Care – Taking Care of Me project’.

A cross-service collaboration between Mid West ARIES and the Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Team (SPMHT), University Maternity Hospital Limerick began in April 2023 with a wellbeing workshop for women attending SPMHT. Participants requested practical support on how to implement a daily self-care routine. A follow-up survey identified needs and resources including a co-produced self-care workbook.

Joint category winner: The Meath Specialist Lymphoedema Clinic, HSE Dublin and North East

Project titled: Proof of concept initiative – ‘Establish community based Specialist Lymphoedema Clinic’.

Speaking about this project, Thelma Dunne, Senior Physiotherapist, Specialist Lymphoedema Clinic said:  “The aim of this service as per the model of care was to assess, treat, and manage clients with lymphoedema living in County Meath. To improve the quality of life for clients living with lymphoedema. Also, to reduce the GP visits, public health nurse visits, risk of cellultis and reducing hospital admissions.”

Excellence in Quality and Patient Safety

Category winner: Public Health Nursing Primary Care, Corporate/National Services

Project titled: ‘Standardised maternal postnatal care in the Public Health Nursing Service’.

Public health nurses are mandated to visit families within 72 hours of discharge from the maternity services. This encompasses a comprehensive assessment of the postnatal mother. Preceding the development of this initiative, practices varied in relation to this assessment. There was no national guideline on maternal postnatal care and there were 13 different maternal postnatal records in use in the country.

Improving Patient Experience

Category winner: CARE Community Virtual Ward, HSE West and North West

Project titled: CARE—Community and Acute Respiratory Excellence Healthcare initiative.

COPD hospital care in Ireland costs €90 million annually with multiple readmissions and little alternative to hospital care available. A proof of concept for a Community Virtual Ward ICT system, incorporating respiratory rate trends, was designed with a small cohort of patients and was highly successful, achieving 100% hospital avoidance. Sláintecare funded the model's expansion to all COPD patients in Donegal in May 2023.

Innovation in Service Delivery

Category winner: The Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery in University Hospital Galway, HSE West and North West

Project titled: ‘Minimally Invasive Vessel Harvesting for Coronary Artery Bypass Grafts Surgery’.

Speaking  about the project, Dr Sadiq Siddiqui, Associate Specialist in Cardiothoracic Surgery, University Hospital Galway, said: “Part of our job is to perform coronary artery bypass surgeries, which require harvesting veins and the radial artery. Traditionally those veins are harvested via long incision, which are associated with pain, wound infections, debilitating scars and delayed mobility. For the last eight years, we have been using this new minimally invasive technique by which you can harvest the radial artery and the long saphenous vein via just a 2-centimetre incision. Our results have shown that the wound infection rates have dropped from 7% to 0% in our unit, and the length of stay has also significantly reduced.”

Engaging a Digital Solution

Category winner: St James's Hospital, HSE Dublin and Midlands

Project titled: ‘Visual Hospital Management System improves patient flow and bed management’.

Previously, St James’s Hospital (SJH) patient flow processes were fragmented and manual, requiring high volumes of staff time to identify and communicate bed management matters. Additionally, no forum existed for multi-disciplinary teams to proactively coordinate discharges.  A digital solution to visualise patient flow, reduce cumbersome processes and improve communication was proposed. The results was their project patient flow and bed management.

Working together for a Greener Health Service

Category winner: Prosper Group, HSE Dublin and North East

Project titled: Energy Management Sustainability initiative within the Prospect Group

Prosper Group provides supports to 530 adults with intellectual disabilities across Fingal and Meath. The issue of climate action came to the fore with growing concerns of our organisation's carbon footprint, energy costs and the disproportionate impact that climate change has on the individuals that we support.

Pat Lacey, Procurement Officer, Prosper Group said: “The Energy Management Sustainability initiative within the Prosper Group has been monumental. It has helped in so many ways, staff and service users in entering into a world where service users not just believe that they can be involved in a movement to change but that they can actually drive it.”

The 2024 award ceremony took place on Thursday, 28 November 2024 in Farmleigh House, Dublin’s Phoenix Park. For further information, see hse.ie/excellenceawards and follow #HSEExcellenceAwards24 on @HSE_HR