The care pathways ensure that when faced with a patient with a particular condition or set of symptoms, staff working in the emergency department have a set list of checks and treatments to follow to help make sure they get the best care and time is used effectively to allow more patients to be seen quickly.
One care pathway which Matt helped develop is for sepsis, which if not treated quickly can lead to organ failure and death. It is responsible for up to 40,000 deaths annually.
Matt and his team believed a simple assessment tool and treatment plan for all emergency department staff to follow would help tackle the problem of insufficient knowledge of early sepsis treatment and recording of the condition in hospital.
Matt said: “We now identify and treat over 91% of sepsis patients within the first hour of their arrival in the emergency department, and the tool has been so successful if has been adopted and rolled out across the trust.
“In the last seven months, I have designed and launched 12 new pathways for serious and life-threatening conditions and several others are in the pipeline.
”Karen Webb, RCN Eastern Regional Director, said: “Initiatives like this demonstrate the innovative and inspirational approach taken by nurses who are constantly striving to improve the experience of their patients.
“Across the Eastern region we are aware of many more cases of nurses leading innovations in their workplaces which will leave a long-lasting legacy of better care and excellent service.”
Yvonne Blücher, Chief Nurse at Southend University Hospital, added: “This is a great innovation led by nursing at Southend and puts patients at the heart of demonstrating compassionate and safe care.”
