Croydon Health Services Trust and Patienteer (a clinical workflow optimisation system) took home the Best Patient Safety Initiative in A&E award at the HSJ Patient Safety Awards on Tuesday night.

The HSJ Patient Safety Awards, which took place in Manchester, explored themes across shortlisted projects including innovation and technology, patient-centricity, and collaboration. Patient care is essential and should always be seen as a top priority with resources such as practice management software as well as similar others, being used to facilitate essential needs that medical practices have for their patients.

Croydon Health Service’s winning submission highlighted their use of Patienteer’s unique and innovative real-time analytics software to coordinate the department and reduce the time taken for critical imaging diagnostics.

Croydon Health, who recently opened their new Emergency Department, implemented the Patienteer system last year and within just three months, found that the time to complete imaging in A&E had reduced considerably for high-priority cases, completing the process in as little as 38 minutes, which once used to take up to 2.5hrs.

Patienteer’s workflow analytics software identifies steps in the workflow to pinpoint where delays happen, in real-time and provides an ETA on expected results. The priority-based system has since been adopted within site management and will soon be on the wards.

The award was presented to both parties on the night with a speech from the award presenter, who noted that “the judges felt that the award should go to this innovation; an impressive collaborative quality improvement project which could be easily spread beyond the ED and to other Trusts.”

Craig Burke, CEO of Patienteer, said: “We are so happy to have picked up this award as it solidifies the incredible hard work and dedication all those involved have put in. Our partnership with Croydon Health means the Emergency Department team can make decisions on patient care much earlier, and patients are subject to fewer delays, which has proved crucial for very ill patients.

“It’s incredibly humbling to be a part of this award win, and to have won against so many other great entries, is a fantastic feeling.“

HSJ bureau chief for quality and patient safety Shaun Lintern commented: “Each of the winners exemplify the best of the NHS: working to improve the safety of their services and to deliver higher quality of care to their patients.

“It was a privilege to celebrate with the winners and I hope other organisations and teams can learn from their example as we raise the bar on safty.”