Swiss Quality Award 2016: When innovation takes hold

Dance as outpatient fall prevention, fewer blood transfusions thanks to monitoring and feedback, increased diagnostic competence of paramedics and efficient hospital construction: from almost 40 quality projects admitted to the competition, four reality-tested innovations were selected that advance the quality of the Swiss healthcare system. The Swiss Quality Award has thus once again succeeded in making exemplary quality work accessible to a broad public, stimulating scientific discussion, giving impetus to research and networking researchers. In 2016, the Swiss Quality Award goes to the following winning projects:

Category "outpatient sector

Fall prevention for seniors: The dance station

70 percent of elderly nursing home residents in Switzerland fall at least once a year, and osteoporosis-related bone fractures cause more than CHF 350 million in health care costs each year. Half of the falls can be avoided through conscious dance training. Because dance partners and suitable dance stations are often lacking in old age, the REDANCE company has developed the dance station for single dancers. It consists of a screen at eye level, 25 choreographed pieces of music (original music from the 50s and 60s) and a pressure-sensitive base plate. Arrows appearing on the screen show the dancer where to place his feet.

Pilot tests in retirement homes met with enthusiasm and improved stair descent, reaction time and balance. A dance station is already profitable if it prevents two bone fractures per year. Therefore, the dance station as fall prevention significantly increases patient safety.

Category "stationary sector

Patient Blood Management Monitoring and Feedback Program

Blood transfusions are not risk-free for patients and are also cost-intensive. Despite the introduction of transfusion guidelines in 2012, the number of transfusions at the University Hospital Zurich did not decrease. Only the Patient Blood Management Monitoring and Feedback Program, which was implemented in close coordination with the hospital directors and in collaboration with IT, reduced the number of blood transfusions per 1,000 patients by over 25 percent within one year. As a result, expenses of approximately CHF 2 million could be avoided.

The project is a good example of how only the introduction of transparent outcome measurement and its discussion in a collegial environment ensure the implementation of jointly agreed guidelines. The monitoring and feedback programme can also be applied to other areas and institutions and could significantly increase patient safety at national level.

Category "cross-sectoral

Respiratory distress - a preclinical quality project

The leading symptom of respiratory distress is one of the frequent reasons for rescue missions. For the staff of rettung chur, the professional rescue service of the Graubünden Cantonal Hospital, it was often not easy to distinguish between cardiac and pulmonary respiratory distress at the scene. Therefore, the company initiated the quality project "Respiratory Distress". Patients with respiratory distress were statistically recorded, the suspected diagnoses were compared with the clinical diagnoses, an emergency algorithm for respiratory distress was reviewed, and rescue personnel were trained.

Analysis of the specially developed review protocols enabled precise improvements, such as specific diagnostic training and better stethoscopes. The "Respiratory Distress" quality project specifically increased the expertise of staff, and the respiratory distress intervention algorithm was updated. The methodology of the study with a six-stage quality control loop is also suitable for improving other suspected diagnoses. Last but not least, the quality project "Respiratory Distress" could be implemented without large or even external costs.

Swiss Quality Poster Award

Employees know how: Kaizen for efficient hospital construction

Hospital construction projects are highly complex and expensive. In the case of the new construction of a magnetic resonance tomograph in Lucerne's main station, all employees were involved in the planning and their knowledge was used with great success. The Japanese method of Kaizen chosen for this means "change for the better". In addition to the monthly meetings of the planning staff, all employees were given access to the construction plans and were regularly asked for their assessments and ideas. This created a great deal of understanding and resulted in a high level of satisfaction with the new building. Operations benefited from ongoing error corrections as well as savings in construction, infrastructure and personnel costs of around CHF 200,000. In addition, the daily commuting times of radiology staff outside their work area were reduced by around 12 minutes in the new building. Kaizen has thus impressively proven its worth as a method of conserving the financial and human resources of the healthcare system.
http://www.swissqualityaward.ch