Dial a Doctor: Improving lines of communication on the acute admissions unit

The Royal London Hospital operates a system of 'specialty take triage', meaning that multiple teams provide patient care on the hospital's Acute Admission Unit (AAU). The aim of this project is to ensure the medical team for each patient can be promptly and easily contacted. An initial staff survey and engagement with key stakeholders assessed the baseline situation and guided a series of interventions, including the creation of ward whiteboards and funding for more portable phones. During further improvement cycles representatives from each profession were recruited to promote the new system, working groups held, and presentations made at staff meetings. The staff survey was repeated to gauge improvement. The initial survey of 33 staff revealed that there was no reliable system for ascertaining the specialty team to which a patient had been allocated or information on how to contact them. 39% of respondents reported experiencing a situation they felt was unsafe. Following the initial interventions, 25 staff responded to a second survey. 96% responded that the new system had made it easier to contact the correct medical team. The percentage of staff reporting difficulty knowing which medical team to contact most or everyday reduced from 66% to 32%. The percentage of those reporting difficulty contacting that team most or everyday reduced from 36% to 12%. There were 22 respondents to the survey following the second round of intervention. Less than 5% of staff reported difficulty most or everyday in both identifying the correct medical team and contacting them. There has been marked improvement in the ease of identifying and contacting the medical teams. This project is ongoing, recognising that further progress is required to ensure patient safety.