NNUH leading the way in Tracheostomy care

Erica Everitt, Tracheostomy Specialist Practitioner (pictured left) and Shirley Brigham, Tracheostomy Support Practitioner

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) has been selected for an exciting new quality improvement research project into Tracheostomy care.

The three year project aims to improve the safety and quality of tracheostomy care through collaboration with exemplar sites from across the world. The project is a joint collaboration between the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Global Tracheostomy Collaborative and is funded by the Health Foundation.

NNUH was one of 15 Trusts nationally who applied to an open invitation and was selected because it is a leader in this field and provides a high quality service focused on the continual improvement of tracheostomy care.

The research project is the formulation of a national database. The information will include how many tracheostomies are performed each year as currently there is not database in existence to do this. The database has been introduced to gain an accurate national statistical picture of tracheostomy patients with future guidelines developed for the nature, scale and order of quality improvement interventions, which will guide future adoption and sustainability.

Dr. Brendan McGrath, NHS England Lead for tracheostomy care and project lead stated: “We are extremely excited to be working with Erica Everitt and the team at NNUH to improve the care of a particularly vulnerable group of patients.  We were particularly impressed with their current tracheostomy services and Erica’s recent publications in the Nursing Times.  Involvement in the project is indicative of Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals’ vision, focus on research and drive to improve care.”

The project lead nurse at NNUH, Erica Everitt, has developed the NNUH tracheostomy support service over the last nine years working with acute and community tracheostomy patients.

Erica Everitt, NNUH Tracheostomy Specialist Practitioner said: “The database will create a national collaborative environment with sites supporting each other as our service type is not commonly found in acute hospitals.  It is hoped the study will show that by finding new, co-ordinated ways of working this can then lead to all sorts of positive results such as reducing the length of patient stay and improving the quality of care this patient group receives.”