Ms Nicole Tolhurst1, Ms Kathy Dempsey, Dr Susan Jain, Dr Anne Mok, Mr Garth Worboys
1Clinical Excellence Commission And HealthShare NSW, Sydney, Australia
Project Aim: To implement a new auditing program and evaluate IPAC processes within PTS with the main objective of identifying and addressing gaps and keeping staff, patients and the community safe.
Method or Actions: Audit tools developed October 2021 with schedules (end of shift clean, drop off and pick up). Mentoring and audits conducted on the Quality Audit Reporting System (QARS), non-compliance identified, action plans created and closed out within 4 weeks.
Results: Total of 1240 audits conducted by the PTS mentors and QA from Jan -May 2022. Non-compliance and scoring were rated with one question incorrect equalling to an A and 2=B, 3=C, 4=D and 5+=E. Overall results for ‘pickup audit’ scoring A = 84.28%, B= 11.28%, C= 3.1%, D=1.31% and E=0%
Conclusion: Increased awareness through continual education sessions and communication of results to staff, highlighting the need to follow infection prevention and control processes to achieve staff and patient safety, achieving system level improvements and sustaining these improvements.
Future plans: Continuing the auditing program
Background: PTS is a NSW service located in hubs within Greater Metro Sydney and Hunter New England for patients requiring transport to, or from, a healthcare facility, rehabilitation unit and the community that do not need a time critical emergency ambulance. The evolving COVID-19 pandemic highlighted areas of opportunity to improve existing IPAC compliance, visibility, knowledge and education. Implementation of such an audit program provided an important pathway to measure compliance but also to bridge the gap to knowledge and engagement.
Biography: An inaugural auditing program provided an important tool in measuring staff knowledge and compliance so changes could be integrated into the PTS safety system. Mentors were trained to provide regular self-assessments within hubs to monitor and assess areas to benefit from quality improvement projects. The Quality Assurance (QA) team conducted independent validation audits to compare results.