Community navigators support patients to avoid hospital admission
Patients at Chesterfield Royal Hospital and Royal Derby Hospital are benefiting from a new initiative aimed at avoiding unnecessary admissions.
A three-week trial using “community navigators” to help identify alternatives to admission recently took place and will now stay in place over winter.
It was part of Derbyshire’s community transformation programme – which is exploring ways to redesign services to better meet patients’ needs and to improve efficiency.
The trial at the two hospitals’ emergency departments was supported by local NHS 111 providers DHU with two dedicated “community navigators”.
Their roles are aimed at reducing demand for our acute hospital services and identifying patients whose needs could be better met through community care pathways.
The trial showed that over the three-week period patients were able to return home with community pathway support as an alternative to admission to hospital.
At Chesterfield Royal Hospital teams have built on this success to cover longer periods of the day.
At Royal Derby the changes have been implemented after departments have moved to their new locations, as part of reorganisation taking place there.
The new service includes:
- two non-clinical DHU colleagues at each site to support referrals.
- wider hours of operation
- structured pathways with provide to support referrals
- scripting of referrals with examples of scripts and information to gather ahead of referral
- governance in place to support model with daily meetings and senior clinical support
- improved capture of data and outcomes integral to both acute trusts and community services
Michelle Veitch, Chief Operating Officer at Chesterfield Royal Hospital said: “ Patient care and improving their experience is at the centre of everything we do. Ensuring they receive the care they need in a place that is best for them is part of that. Thank you to everyone who has engaged with the initial trial and whose feedback helped us make the changes necessary to provide a better service.”