Woodbury Court awarded Essex County Council’s Silver PROSPER Sticker

CQC 'Outstanding' care home, Woodbury Court in Laindon, Essex, is celebrating receiving the county’s PROSPER scheme Silver Sticker award. This is a significant mark of achievement and demonstrates the homes level of committing to promoting the safer provision of care for every resident.

PROSPER stands for Promoting safer provision of care for elderly residents and is an initiative  run in residential and nursing care homes in Essex, collaborating with  Essex County Council, the health sector, UCLPartners and Anglia Ruskin Health Partnership.

The aim is to improve safety and reduce harm for vulnerable care home residents, who are at particular risk of admission to hospital or significant deterioration in their health and quality of life. The scheme used quality improvement methods to reduce preventable harm from falls, urinary tract infections and pressure ulcers.

Woodbury Court skipped the first two levels of the new scheme and achieved Silver for their first assessment and are now working towards reaching Gold status, hoping to be award this summer by introducing an exclusive PROSPER group/committee and sharing minutes and actions with PROSPER.

To qualify for the Silver Prospers sticker, Woodbury Court were able to evidence that they carry out:

• Routine Data collection on all 3 areas (falls, pressure ulcers, UTI’s) for a minimum of six months.
• Analysis of the data to see what area to focus on and using it to set your home SMART aims, which are communicated to staff and visitors. Woodbury Court focused on falls, reducing fall incidents from 40+ down to 28 falls in January 2020.
• Small tests of change are being actively implemented with interventions focusing on the area where improvement is needed, as identified by the data analysis, using the structured ‘Plan Do Study Act’ model for improvement. Including completing PDSA worksheets to record what has worked, whether adjustments were needed or starting afresh with a new intervention. 
• All staff to have a general understanding of what PROSPER is, and its purpose, and to know what the homes current SMART aim is. This can be evidenced through agenda items at team meetings, supervisions and suggestions from staff on small tests of change. The Prosper team will test this on visits and at Prosper events.  
• The home must be engaging with the PROSPER team through dialect with their support officer. This could include support visits, telephone calls, emails and/or attendance at PROSPER specific events such as Community of Practice and Prosper Champion Study days and contributing to the Prosper newsletter with ideas/successes they have had. A new drinks menu with visual aids has been introduced by Woodbury Court, displayed in lounges and dining areas, to assist residents in choosing drinks. This is to be included in the next PROSPER newsletter.