A new "buddy" approach is proving a success in our attempts to improve Patient Flow for our patients.
 

Discharge coordinator at CRH Julie Brown is teaming up with social worker Rachel Howard to work with our patients, their families and other agencies to help our patients out of hospital and back home or into community settings to continue their recoveries. 

Getting the close working in place for discharge is essential part of improving patient flow. This is traditionally a weak link and a tough challenege to get right and safe.

Rachel's boss, Calderdale Social Work manager Inderjit Matharu came up with the idea to pilot as a new way of addressing the challenge. Rachel, based in the old CRH, and Julie have a meeting every afternoon in Rachel's office to update and then spend the rest of the time on the wards with patients and their families.
 

Project manager, Colin Duffield said: "This three-week trial at CRH is doing just the sort of thing we were hoping for. It increases the team's visibility and they are starting to understand each others' roles and how they operate and come together to provide better care for our patients and their families. At the end of it we shall evaluate and decide how to advance based on this good work."
 

Julie said: "We both absolutely prioritise the patients wishes and needs, this is a way of us working together to get the right result. Also I think that we’ve both learned a lot from each other."