
Insulin error-reducing project wins Rowan Hillson award
The winner of the Rowan Hillson Insulin Safety Award 2018 was announced last night.
Dr Kath Higgins, Consultant in Diabetes Care and Clinical Lead for Inpatient Diabetes Care at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, triumphed for a project which reduces insulin errors and in-hospital DKA.
The latest theme for the national competition was ‘The best inpatient educational programme for healthcare professionals’. There were seven entries and the overall standard was described as “high”.
The Joint British Diabetes Societies for Inpatient Care initiative aims to promote excellent practice in the safety of inpatients with diabetes. The submissions were judged by an independent panel chaired by former National Diabetes Clinical for Director Dr Rowan Hillson MBE against predefined criteria. The winning submissions will be available to download from Association of British Clinical Diabetologists (ABCD), Diabetes UK and DISN UK Group websites.
Dr Umesh Dashora, Erwin Castro and Debbie Stanisstreet led this project. The judges included Dr Anne Kilvert, Dr Clare Crowley, Sarah Gregory and Emma Green.
Winner |
Dr Kath Higgins, Consultant in Diabetes Care, Clinical Lead for Inpatient Diabetes Care, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
Dr Higgins and her team developed educational toolkit accessible to medical, nursing and pharmacy staff and including face-to-face training, e-learning module, monthly newsletter, social media communications with competency document and flashcards. |
Runner-ups |
Dr Michael Lloyd, Clinical Education Lead Pharmacist, St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Dr Lloyd and her colleagues at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust for their individualised and shared insulin prescribing error feedback system, Safe Insulin TipS (SIPS), and multi-professional simulation based training. Ruth Miller, Diabetes Nurse Consultant, NHS North West London Collaboration of Clinical Commissioning Groups Ruth Miller and colleagues in North West London developed and implemented the Diabetes 10 Point Training in Acute Hospitals across the area. The clinically-based teaching programme provides quick training specifically designed for all hospital settings to address the commonest diabetes errors. |
Commenting on the stand on entries, Dr Hillson said: “Once again, the entries submitted were of a high standard and the judges had a challenging task to choose the winner. These projects, which have taken so much expertise, planning, energy, enthusiasm, and commitment, illustrate the high calibre of diabetes teams around the country.
“People with diabetes are found throughout our hospitals in many different areas and under the care of many different teams with very variable knowledge of diabetes care. It is an immense challenge both to locate these patients and to ensure that they have optimal care, working all the time in an NHS under ever-increasing pressure.
These projects, which have taken so much expertise, planning, energy, enthusiasm, and commitment, illustrate the high calibre of diabetes teams around the country. Dr Rowan Hillson MBE
“There are continuing major efforts to improve in-patient diabetes management and I would like to acknowledge the huge impact that the Joint British Diabetes Societies for Inpatient Care group has had on this. It is heartening to see projects that demonstrate improvements in care. Every project has lessons to share.”
Dr Hillson praised the winner saying the messages were consistent across the resources and the project had executive support. She said: “The judges were impressed by the reduction in insulin errors and in-hospital DKA.”
There will be an awards presentation for the winner and runners up at the ABCD meeting on Thursday, May 16, in Loughborough.
The group would like to thank Christine Jones for coordinating the award.
The winner of the Rowan Hillson Insulin Safety Award 2017 was Dr Stuart Ritchie, Consultant Physician at the Western General Hospital, NHS Lothian, with the judges highly impressed by his entry, ‘Development of an inpatient diabetes dashboard to drive quality improvement’.
For more information, please visit www.diabetologists-abcd.org.uk or contact the Safer Insulin Prescribing Group: u.dashora@nhs.net, debbie.stanisstreet@nhs.net, ecastro@nhs.net.