Projects and Case Studies

Projects and Case Studies

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Across Scotland there are a number of quality improvement projects with a focus on sustainable services in health care and other public services, alongside the national initiatives described in Quality Improvement Journey and Sustainability. Improving healthcare means more sustainable healthcare. Improvement projects may focus on reducing carbon footprint or waste. Or they may focus on reducing dependence on specific commodities or processes. Recent ScIL participants have focussed on improvement aims related to reducing waste.

If you are leading on improvement work focussed on sustainability we would love to hear from you – please get in touch with the QI team (email: QualityImprovement@nes.scot.nhs.uk)

Scottish Projects & Case Studies

"The Gloves are off" (Royal College Nursing), Green Theatre project, Childsmile - NHS Health Scotland Including concepts of inequality as a driver of resource use, and as a social outcome measure of QI work. Renal NHS GGC set up a departmental committee to drive forward SusQI
Shifting Recycling Behaviour. Aim: By June 2022 90% of student at McLaren High School will recycle their plastic and can products. Stefan Wyrosławski, ScIL 34.
Improving Antimicrobial Stewardship and Sustainability (abstract) and (poster) promoting oral metronidazole in eligible surgical patients at the Royal Alexandria Hospital NHS GG&C, Rachael Rodger
ScotGEM is a graduate-entry medical degree led by the Universities of Dundee and St Andrews with NHS Fife, Highland, Dumfries & Galloway and Tayside. The students learn and apply quality improvement methods several times through their programme. A number of their projects focus on providing more sustainable healthcare – for example, improving appropriate inhaler use and disposal, recycling, reducing carbon footprint associated with travel by staff. Please contact Angie Millar a.t.millar@dundee.ac.uk for more information.
A number of posters were shared at the 2022 NHS Scotland Event in the category of Value and Sustainability, available to view as ePosters through the 2022 Event Showcase webpages.
Quality Improvement Within a Hospital Food System - Reducing Food Waste on Morlich Ward at New Craigs Hospital. Sarah Bowyer, ScIL 37.

Wider UK Projects & Case Studies

Clinical waste or not clinical waste? That is the question! Carol Lutton, ScIL 24. To reduce the amount of waste sent for disposal as general clinical waste by Maynard Children’s Ward in the Ulster Hospital by 10% by June 2020.
Across the wider UK SusQI have also collated a number of case studies that have used quality improvement methodology with a focus on sustainability-related outcomes in health care:

- Reducing unnecessary cannulation in the emergency department
- Improving inhaler prescribing and disposal in the paediatrics unit
- Reducing the use of nitric oxide as an anaesthetic gas
- Early mobilisation in cardiac intensive care
- Reducing duplicate medication ordering
- Green walking for mental health recovery

For further information on these case studies, please go to Case Studies | Sustainable Quality Improvement (susqi.org)