Our approach to Quality Improvement (QI)

KMPT’s 2020-23 strategy includes our ambition with regards to quality improvement and a continuous quality improvement (QI) culture. It is aligned with KMPT’s just and learning culture and sets out how we will drive up quality improvement activity in KMPT.

By demonstrating that we are a listening and learning organisation, empowering our staff to drive improvement and rebalancing quality assurance and quality control, we aim to ensure that patients and carers are at the heart of what we do.

Over the past year, KMPT has progressed the implementation and embedding of QI within the Trust. The KMPT QI approach has been developed and informed by a comprehensive literature review of best practice ensuring it is a practical approach that meets the needs of our service users, carers, staff, KMPT and local system.

It has been strengthened and refined to include supporting tools and frameworks plus accessible
infographics to present the QI approach in a way that is easily understandable to a wide audience.

The new QI team has been established and recruitment of a Clinical director lead for QI is underway.

This QI team are working in in collaboration with wider Improvement and transformation colleagues, clinical and operational leads from across the services. The QI team is currently supporting a number of QI projects as well as maintaining engagement with teams, new improvement ideas and tests of change.

The QI team has established an active twitter account with growing followership and regular championing of QI content. The QI i-connect pages provide a space for KMPT staff to access relevant information and a new FutureNHS platform has now been set up.

The FutureNHS space is a place to host extra QI content including tools, training information and news and can be accessed by NHS staff through setting up a simple account. This will be a great way for KMPT staff to supplement i-connect (staff intranet) and access more about QI but also for system and wider NHS partners to engage with our QI work.

During quarter one of 2021-22 we will be launching our refreshed quality improvement strategy and ambition across the Trust, developing bitesize QI training for delivering in year and continuing to deliver Trust wide QI projects.

Our outcomes include front line staff embedding QI in their work, coproduction in all QI projects, QI project’s success measures being evidenced and a QI approach which is aligned with our just and learning culture.

The majority of the projects currently sitting within the QI portfolio are on-going and therefore not at the point of reportable outcomes. However, an example of one piece of QI work which did conclude in the last financial year and includes great results and outcomes is the project to improve antidepressant adherence patients under the Kent Primary Care Mental Health service through the management of nurses routine patient medication education and medication counselling. 93 per cent of patients are now routinely offered medication education and counselling to aid adherence – which is a huge achievement.