A project led by the Oxford Academic Health Science Network and Windsor, Ascot and Maidenhead Clinical Commissioning Group has successfully reduced urinary tract infections among care home residents and scooped three national awards.
The initiative won awards for patient safety and best interface at the PrescQIPP awards. It was then voted best overall innovation by people attending the awards ceremony.
Patient safety manager Katie Lean, left, is pictured with Carol Roberts, Chief Executive of PrescQIPP, and Sundus Jawad, Prescribing and Care homes support Pharmacist for the east Berkshire Clinical Commissioning Groups – and the three trophies!
The care home hydration project started last year in four care homes in Maidenhead and Datchet.
UTIs are associated with dehydration. The project aimed to encourage residents to drink more fluids and bring about a reduction in UTIs requiring medication or hospital admission by introducing seven drinks rounds every day. These were designed and delivered by the care home staff themselves.
Abbas Abdeali, Manager at the Eton house residential home in Datchet, said: “The biggest benefit of the structured drinks rounds was the way it made staff aware of the importance to keep residents hydrated. Sometimes a simple method can achieve great things.”
Sundus Jawad added: “Keeping it simple means it’s not only easy to implement but also easy to sustain.”
The project achieved a 33% reduction in UTI hospital admissions – and in the last six months there have been no UTI hospital admissions at all. The number of calls to GPs and UTIs needing treatment with antibiotics also fell within all four care homes. The initiative has now been extended to nine more care homes in Berkshire and Oxfordshire.
- A poster about the hydration project is being prepared for the national Patient First event later this month.
- It is part of the Oxford AHSN Patient Safety Collaborative’s acute kidney injury (AKI) workstream.