SETU course participants identify solutions to enhance hospitals

Twenty two acute healthcare workers have become the first people in Ireland to graduate with a Higher Diploma (level 8) in Operational Excellence in Healthcare. 

This postgraduate course has been developed by St James’s Hospital in partnership with South East Technological University (SETU) to train future hospital leaders.

The course aims to tackle the complex challenges facing the health service, while driving sustainable and systematic improvements. The programme is designed to empower staff to lead transformative projects to improve patient care and outcomes. 

The 22 participants include consultants, nurses, operations managers, laboratory and facilities management staff and senior allied healthcare professionals, all of whom completed the course successfully this year. 

Commending the graduates’ achievement, CEO of the HSE, Bernard Gloster said: “Providing exceptional services amid increasing demand and evolving challenges calls for bold, innovative solutions; these graduates have demonstrated a commitment to driving meaningful change through projects that have the potential to create lasting improvements for our healthcare system and our patients.” 

The course focuses on real-world applications, with students developing projects to tackle existing inefficiencies, offering their own unique perspective as healthcare workers. 

For example students Ricardo Paco, Orla Fitzpatrick, Nuala Hannon and Stuart Garrett aimed to address fragmented and manual patient processes, which proved time consuming for staff. 

They designed the Visual Hospital Management System, a dedicated platform for multidisciplinary teams to proactively coordinate discharges and improve patient flow and bed management. This digital solution aims to enhance communication across the hospital.

Student Cathy O’Donoghue examined the requirement for two-hour fasting for clear fluids before procedures involving anaesthetics. She found the fasting requirement was causing patients to fast longer than needed, leading to unnecessary fluid deprivation and patient discomfort. 

The primary outcome was reduced pre-operative fluid deprivation time for fasting patients, which resulted in decreased anxiety, headaches, nausea and improved patients' overall experience.

South East Technological University Lean Programme Director, Darrin Taylor noted the high standards of the projects produced by course participants: “The St James’s staff demonstrated extraordinarily high levels of commitment and engagement throughout the programme, and in the context of the known sectoral challenges and continuing post Covid legacies. It was so energising to see the fresh approaches and innovative thinking, which will have real-life impact for patient care and ways of working in Ireland.” 

Director of Lean Transformation at St. James’s Hospital, Fiona Keogan added: “Our vision is underpinned by a system-wide improvement programme that adopts Lean Transformation as a foundational approach, embedding excellence throughout every level of the organisation.
We want to support staff to deploy their skills and experience to lead meaningful change. 

"The Higher Diploma in Operational Excellence has enabled us to build competency and capacity in foundational improvement skills – like recognising waste and non-value-added processes."

CEO of the hospital, Mary Day said: “At St James’s Hospital, our guiding philosophy, and approach of continuous improvement is transforming services for the better. Education is at the heart of that and this course and its participants will be the hospital leaders of the future, helping us to achieve our strategic ambitions.”