The Lean Healthcare Academy, leaders in the field of training, implementation and sustaining improvement activities across the whole health economy hosted its annual Exhibition and Awards on Thursday at the Royal Armouries in Leeds. Attended by over 150 healthcare professionals from across the country the event showcased the advancements in Lean made by both the academies members and independent organisations.

Wendy Gauntley, Lean Healthcare Academy Manager said: "I am extraordinarily proud of our members and the many independent trusts present who have made huge strides towards the goal of a Lean NHS. Everyone here today can take away the knowledge shared by their peers and a renewed passion for continuous improvement within their organisations"

The awards handed out by the Lean Healthcare Academy attracted in excess of 100 applications; each one showing how an organisation or team had implemented Lean to create time and cost savings, re-design pathways, improve the patient experience and in many cases save lives.

Detailed information about the winning applications and photos from the event can be found here.

Along with the raft of applications from Lean Healthcare Academy members, this year's event saw 26 very high calibre projects from independent organisations submitted for the awards. The level of Lean understanding and implementation was very high and resulted in Independent organisations picking up several awards along with the People's Choice which was chosen by the attending delegates during the morning exhibition.

The Yorkshire Cancer Network (YCN) was the winner of the hotly contested Facilitators choice award. Cancer is always an emotive subject, arguably none more so than lung cancer and the worked carried out by YCN in conjunction with the Lean Healthcare Academy to create a network-wide re-design of the Thoracic Pathway, goes a long way to immediately saving lives through earlier detection and treatment of cancer. Using Lean tools the YCN has seen a reduction in the surgical pathway steps from 94 to 49 and the time between prognosis and treatment has been slashed.

For their work streaming the Neonatal blood screening pathway, NHS Community Health Stockport were presented with the Best Impact on Patient Safety award. Working with the Lean Healthcare Academy, the project has made a real difference to patients now that the process is much more reliable in terms of patient safety and experience. Babies are treated promptly where required and parents are waiting less time for the blood results and are, therefore, less anxious. This risk of patient safety incidents has been greatly reduced.

University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust, Stoke-on-Trent, scooped four awards including the Organisation of the Year award and Lean Champion which went to Heidi Poole for her dedicated efforts in spearheading Lean implementation within UHNS and training 140 staff from 14 areas in Lean principles.
A clear structure has been put in place University Hospital of North Staffordshire and there are currently 25 significant Lean projects in progress at UHNS, which also houses an in-house Lean Healthcare Academy regional training centre in the Healthcare Careers and Skills Academy at the City General Hospital site.

The special award clinched by Dr Russell and Mrs Gardener recognises outstanding contribution made towards the advancement of Lean within the healthcare sector.

Divisional director of e-academies Judith Clarkson said: "The duo have been unrelenting in their drive to utilise the Lean philosophy to achieve great things for their trust, while continuing to carry out their very demanding day jobs.

"They have led not only their executive team colleagues and their board, but also the rest of their 7,000-strong workforce to embrace Lean in some very difficult circumstances.

"They are as an excellent example of clinical staff and management working together for the benefit of patients. We salute them for having courage and faith in themselves and in the Lean Healthcare Academy."

Other award winners were:
Outstanding Contribution to Improving Services: Southern Health and Social Care Trust, based at Craigavon Area Hospital, Portadown, Northern Ireland, for its 'Change In Mind' project.
The customer-focused project centred on transforming access to mental health services. Concerns included the inequity of service provision and the lack of maximum waiting time, resulting in some service users waiting a year before being able to access the service, during which time their condition may have seriously worsened.
The project has achieved a reduction in waiting time to 13 weeks, a level that has since been maintained, with a further objective to reduce waiting times to nine weeks by March, 2010. Most importantly, there is now equity of service across the Trust's operational areas.

Best Sustained Project: St. Helen's and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust's Microbiology Department.
The project aimed to further improve turnaround times of MRSA screening and urine analysis, so that patients could be cared for in a clean and safe environment. The department introduced daily CDT screening in April, 2008, and the changes in microbiology were one of the most significant factors in reducing the rate of hospital-acquired CDT.
The microbiology department was highly commended in the 2008 Health Service Journal awards and in the last financial year the Trust had the fourth lowest MRSA infection rate in the country.
The microbiology department has continued to sustain and build on its achievements and can demonstrate improvements by continuing to reduce turnaround times and achieve continuing progress.

Independent Project of the Year: North East Strategic Health Authority, for its NETS (North-East Transformation System) Coalition.
In 2007, the North East SHA defined a strategic plan for the region and the NETS Coalition is a group of six NHS organisations that are pioneering a Lean approach to service transformation. A total of 163 certified leaders have been trained in Lean-based tools and techniques, with 57 rapid process improvement workshops staged. Numerous achievements have been recorded to date.

Lean Healthcare Academy-supported Project of the Year: Leeds Community Healthcare Children and Family Services administration team.
In addition to delivering measurable improvements to services and processes within administration, the project has also resulted in a number of spin-off initiatives, including redesign of school nursing reception screening to redesigning the entire Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) patient pathway.

Innovation Award: The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust Integrated IT Project Team, for its Digital Dictation Workstream project.
Wolverhampton Diabetes Centre was faced with a 51-hour turnaround time for dictation, resulting in targets not being met. Following introduction of digital dictation, average turnaround is now 29.5hrs, with all clinical correspondence being typed within 48hrs - in fact, typing now commences while the doctor is still in the clinic.

NVQ Project of the Year: Airedale NHS Trust, for its Level 2 Lean Champions Cohort 4 Pharmacy Department 6S project.
As well as the mainstream 6S focus, the project looked at both health and safety, along with working conditions of staff in a department that was small, cramped and did not fit the needs of a modern pharmacy. In addition to creating an overall better working environment and 6S audit structure, the Lean team transformed and streamlined the service to make it far more efficient, user-friendly and cost-effective.

Lean Healthcare Academy Facilitators' Choice: Yorkshire Cancer Network, for its work on the network-wide Thoracic Pathway re-design.
The project was run across seven acute trusts and seven primary care trusts, making it the Lean Healthcare Academy's largest single undertaking to date. The aim was to meet and then better the current lung cancer waiting target times for first definitive treatment (31 or 62 days). The interim review in October this year showed a successful reduction of the number of steps involved in the process from 120 to 50.

The 2009 Lean Healthcare Academy Awards were open to both members and non-members of the Lean Healthcare Academy, which is based in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, and works in partnership with NHS Trusts across the UK to deliver training, implementation and sustaining improvement activities across the health economy.

The awards ceremony was held at the Royal Armouries in Leeds (Thursday, November 12) with presentations made by Dr Bob Gomersall, chairman of the Lean Healthcare Academy's parent company, Virtual College. There were attendees from the length and breadth of the country.
Guest speaker was John Hotowka, who specialises in organisational excellence and has worked with many diverse high profile organisations.

Awards categories were sponsored by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, NHS Yorkshire and the Humber, Yorkshire Forward, Health Systems Consultants, and the Healthcare e-Academy, the Lean Healthcare Academy's sister organisation.

Wendy Gauntley said: "The awards present an opportunity to celebrate the success of the teams and individuals who are spearheading Lean implementation and making real improvements to their entire organisation.

"With 26 active members and three regional centres, the Lean Healthcare Academy has gained national recognition and is now recognised as one of the leaders in its field. We have trained more than 2,000 people, including 111 Lean Champions, among other products we offer seven core workshops and e-learning modules, and we have undertaken more than 150 improvement projects. We continue to expand and champion Lean as a solution to the many challenges facing the NHS."

The awards day also featured an exhibition involving all shortlisted entrants, supported by interactive workshops and opportinuites to network, allowing delegates to share knowledge and experiences with fellow health and social care professionals, and to learn how other organisations are meeting national targets and working towards patients' demands for an increasingly higher level of service.