Improvement sprints
One week. Every ward. Live.
A rapid improvement week, run properly. Every ward tests changes, logs them in a minute, and the whole hospital watches it happen.
a countdown on every page, all week
Sound familiar?
Great week. What did we actually change?
Improvement weeks create a buzz. Then the evidence disappears with the sticky notes.
Now
- Sticky notes on a flipchart in the seminar room.
- Each ward tries something. Nobody else hears about it.
- The results arrive in an email, two weeks later.
- "Which changes did we keep?" Not sure.
With Prep Medics
- Everyone sees it live. Every test appears on Sprint HQ the moment it's logged.
- Ideas spread in the week. A change that works on one ward is tried on the next by the afternoon.
- The evidence is kept. Each test is a finished PDSA cycle, beside the chart that measures it.
- You know what stuck. Adopted, adapted or abandoned, recorded as it happened.
Logging a test
A test of change, logged in a minute.
Four short answers and a decision, from any phone, between patients. The test lands on the sprint feed and on the project, as a finished PDSA cycle.
- No forms to send round, no spreadsheet to update
- Each team's chart sits beside its tests
- Already-running PDSA cycles can be logged to the sprint too
the chart moves while the sprint is on
How a sprint runs
From a date in the diary to changes that stick.
- 1
Set it up in minutes
Name the sprint, its focus and its dates. Run it across one hospital, a few departments, or every hospital in the group.
- 2
Projects join
Each ward joins with the project it's improving, and picks the chart that will show if it worked.
- 3
Test, log, repeat
Teams try changes and log each one in a minute from a phone: what they tried, what they expected, what happened.
- 4
Nothing is lost
Every test becomes a finished PDSA cycle on its project, so the learning carries on after the week ends.
Across the group
The whole group, improving at once.
Run one sprint across every hospital. Each team sees the others' tests as they happen, so a change that works at Northfield General can be tried at St Anne's Hospital the same day. Private projects stay private.