Daniel Frayne, Director of Performance Projects, discusses the Get It Right First Time awards
The GIRFT Awards are run each quarter and recognise staff who have displayed their commitment to continuous improvement, which is one of Sonic Healthcare’s core values.
A commitment to continuous improvement is synonymous with Getting It Right First Time which reduces waste & error and provides better care for our patients and better service for our customers. It also improves the workplace for you, our staff.
We received many excellent nominations from staff who were keen for their colleagues to be recognised for the excellent work they’ve done.
Our medical director, Dr Rachael Liebmann OBE, was part of the judging panel and stated, “It was so encouraging to see nominations of such high calibre and to read about all the staff implementing improvements with such positivity across the group.”
Out of the many nominations received, three were chosen for award recognition and for their stories to be drafted into case studies and uploaded to the GIRFT section of Sonic Learn.
Hasan Atamert – Supervisor, UCL/ HSL Pillar II Covid19 Laboratory
The surge lab” is governed by strict turnaround time and void rate KPI’s. When void rates spiked early in the life of the surge lab, without being asked, Hasan took the initiative to delve into the data and identified a pattern that led to an IT fix which significantly reduced the void rate.
Hasan epitomises continuous improvement and you can read about his other successes in his case study which include; stock monitoring, snagging meetings and new starter admin.
Marios Karafeskos – Associate Practi- tioner, Manchester
The Manchester laboratory has seen huge growth recently, especially in the molecular department. Marios designed and implemented a sample prioritisation pathway and new night shift structure that facilitates the right capacity at the right time and the right turn around times for the right priority.
This type of prioritisation and workforce planning is applicable to all laboratories and the shared learnings can be found in Marios’ case study on Sonic Learn.
Melissa Alston – Associate Practitioner, Manchester
Molecular pathology reagents in Manchester come from the supplier in two parts, each with complementary lot numbers. So when there was an increase in incidents related to mismatched lot numbers being used and therefore an increase in reagents having to be thrown out, Melissa designed and implemented a reagent tracking system which has seen these incidents reduce.
Reagent management is key to all laboratories so make sure to read about Melissa’s reagent log in her case study.
Thanks to all who nominated and for those looking to nominate next round, be sure to be specific about the GIRFT initiative you are nominating by:
- outlining the problem
- explaining the initiative that was implemented
- defining the impact of the person’s actions