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SusQI Showcase
June 2024

Thank you to all those who contributed to a successful 2024 SusQI Showcase Event.

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The event showcased brilliant examples of SusQI practice, with the session divided into three topic areas:

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Part 1 - Embedding sustainability into organisational QI education and practice,

Part 2 - SusQI in Leadership

Part 3 - Patient & Public engagement in SusQI

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Please see below for further details of our speakers, a synopsis 0f their content, and recordings of their presentations. 

‘The session was inspiring from start to finish and showed how small interventions can make an impact on patient care, work volume, carbon footprint and financial savings. All members of the healthcare team can question a process and make impactful changes.’​

2024 Showcase Attendee

Part 1: Embedding sustainability into organisational QI education and practice

Talk synopsis:​

  • There are approximately 65 million healthcare workers around the world who need and use resources to provide care, but unbeknown to most it is having a negative impact on the environment, often in another part of the world.

  • Pockets of improvement work around the world are adding up to bigger change, resulting in sustainable improvement - better clinical outcomes, added social value and reduced environmental and financial costs.

  • 'Be kind, be thoughtful and try to bring others along on the sustainability improvement journey'

Talk synopsis:​

  • Having delivered QSIR (Quality, Service, Improvement & Redesign) training since 2019, the Service Improvement Team at South Warwickshire Foundation University Trust pioneered embedding sustainability principles into the training through the CSH Academy programme.

  • The embedding process was iterative, with adjustments made in response to feedback from QSIR trainees.

  • Example feedback “This feels like a subtle but effective way of demonstrating how sustainable practice and improvement work together”

Talk synopsis:​

  • Florence Nightingale Foundation in partnership with Nuffield Health supported nurses from the frontline in a six month project to deliver sustainable healthcare

  • In this pilot programme, using SusQI and PDSA methodology, 18 nurses collectively saved 6281 tonnes of carbon equivalent gas through their projects.

  • 'Small incremental changes can make a massive impact if scaled up, it’s about collaboration not competition'

​Talk synopsis:​

  • In collaboration with the CSH Academy Programme, Dr Sonia Chanchalani is leading University of Melbourne in teaching SusQI; developing faculty skills and inter-professional workshops whilst supporting sustainability competitions in affiliated hospitals.

  • Challenges encountered have included overly ambitious goals for limited capacity for work, budgetary constraints and resource limitations.

  • Despite this, they’ve made great progress upskilling faculty leads, improving training resources for sustainability competitions and reaching Established Beacon Site Status.

Part 2: SusQI in Leadership

Talk synopsis: ​

  • To meet their sustainability strategic aims, Sheffield Teaching Hospital embarked on a Green Teams Competition (GTC) in collaboration with CSH

  • The winning project piloted reusable tourniquet adding social value by improving patient and staff experience and enabled wider education and discussions with staff about the relationship between healthcare and the environment.

  • Scaled up across the trust, this project could save £35,000/year and almost 25,000kgCO2e/year (equivalent to driving 73,000 miles in an average car)

Talk synopsis:​

  • To maintain sustainability momentum after the competition, Sheffield Teaching Hospital established sustainability networks across the South Yorkshire region, held a Festival of sustainability generating more change ideas and embedded sustainability into QI training resulting in Established Beacon Site status.

  • The team is now looking at all improvement work in their Microsystems Academy using a sustainability lens and are expanding their focus more broadly within the Trust such as food and catering.

Talk synopsis:​

  • The existing pathway for referral to Hand Therapy through trauma clinic often resulted in delayed post-operative appointments. The team implemented a SusQI approach for a simple change to streamline this pathway.

  • The results included improved clinical outcomes, reduced Did Not Attend (DNA) rates and breach to target rates. Patient and staff were very happy with the change, one patient stated ‘This is very important to me, and I make decisions based on environmental considerations.’

Part 3: Patient & Public engagement in SusQI

Talk synopsis:​

  • In this short discussion, public representative Andrea Cantrill talks to us about why sustainability is important to her and why it is important to involve patients and public in service improvements

  • Andrea emphasises the need to open up conversations with patients and the public who may share the same concerns around the environment.

  • “Making a green difference, often makes things simpler, better and more efficient”

Talk synopsis:​

  • This initiative at Great Ormond Street Hospital, adapted from the Pill School initiative, supports children in transitioning from liquid to capsule/tablet medicines. This is more sustainable, can be safer for patients and carries significant financial savings.

  • Patient (and parent) engagement was vital for the success of this project as the team conducted training with the children and their parents on the benefits of capsules/tablets over liquid medication.

  • Expansion of the project with funding and resources could further improve the patient experience.

Talk synopsis:​

  • Type 2 Diabetes carries a large burden of disease.  This project harnessed the power of a social prescribing team and demonstrates the benefit of adopting a sustainability lens.

  • Lack of access to affordable healthy food was a significant barrier for patients. The team accessed funding to enable patients to receive a weekly veg box from a local community growing space where they are also encouraged to volunteer.

  • Tailored diabetic education and support, alongside veg boxes improved diabetic control, and increased social interaction. Patients were sharing recipes with their family and friends disseminating positive change.

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