Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-v5vhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-01T10:45:43.424Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Antipsychotic Monitoring Within the Home Treatment Team in the Southern Trust, a Quality Improvement Project

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 June 2022

Cedar Andress*
Affiliation:
Southern Trust, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Paul Coulter
Affiliation:
Southern Trust, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Leah Watson
Affiliation:
Southern Trust, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
*
*Presenting author.
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.
Aims

The Royal College of Psychiatrists has a specialist group called the Home Treatment Accreditation Scheme (HTAS) that has published a set of best practice recommendations for Home Treatment Crisis Response (HTCR) teams across the UK. As of yet, the HTCR team in the Southern Trust is not accredited. We decided to focus our project on antipsychotic monitoring. SMART aim: All patients (100%) within the HTCR team commenced on antipsychotics are receiving an appropriate level of blood and physical monitoring as recommended by guidelines and these are being documented correctly within 10 days of discharge.

Methods

PLAN

HTAS standards were reviewed alongside NICE guidelines on antipsychotic monitoring and a pro forma created. We collected baseline data on patients commenced on treatment dose antipsychotics in the HTCR team and assessed completion of bloods/ECGs/physical parameters and documentation.

DO

Our intervention for PSDA cycle 1 was to educate members of the multi- disciplinary team (MDT) via a presentation after the baseline data were analysed. We looked at correct documentation and how to fix common mistakes identified. We asked staff for their input on how to improve outcomes. Posters were printed off for guidance. We collected data after this intervention using the same pro forma.

STUDY

We analysed the results from PSDA cycle 1, comparing them to baseline results.

ACT

Our next step in PDSA cycle 2 would be to focus on continuing to improve poorer results such as prolactin levels and ECGs, with input from the MDT.

Results

Baseline data showed between a 14% and 59% completion rate for various baseline bloods, 68–72% completion rate for heart rate (HR)/blood pressure (BP)/weight and a 36% completion rate for ECGs.

Following PDSA cycle 1, this improved to between a 55–100% completion rate for baseline bloods, a 91% completion rate for HR/BP/weight and a 64% completion rate for ECGs.

Baseline documentation of these parameters was correctly recorded between 9–68% of the time. This overall improved after PSDA cycle 1 to 18–73%.

Conclusion

Our intervention from PDSA cycle 1 improved completion of bloods, physical parameters and ECGs in the HTCR team. Documentation also improved in all domains.

Our next step in PDSA cycle 2 would be to focus on continuing to improve poorer results, looking at altering practicalities that may have affected those areas.

Type
Quality Improvement
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.