New patient discharge lounge supported by KFM

The KFM team got the heads up at the start of May that the ward was going to convert into a discharge lounge. KFM was given a very short time to source patient chairs for the lounge and over-bed tables, among other consumables. These included items to help with the high volume of dementia patients who will use the discharge lounge. Dementia friendly games and wall transfers stickers were sourced to help entertain patients.

Tricia Fitzgerald, Deputy Director of Nursing Projects Denmark Hill site, said: “We recently opened the Matthew Whiting Discharge Unit and we found the KFM team to be friendly and responsive to our needs for new equipment at short notice. Stacey and Claire have been really helpful and managed to get the equipment we needed in time for opening. Thank you so much to the KFM team!"

Claire Allcock, Inventory & Purchasing Support Team Leader, at KFM, added: “The pandemic taught us to open new areas in a very short space of time, so opening the new discharge unit in two weeks didn’t really faze us! We worked with the clinicians to help as much as we could from sourcing and purchasing the equipment and consumables to last minute rearranging of furniture and filling up the danicentres ready for patients. This was a real team effort so thank you to all involved including Luke Oloo who did a fantastic job reorganising the storeroom, Tim Kerr for helping sourcing the equipment as well as Kerry Johnstone and Henry Essilfie helping with the budget and cost codes for the new area.”

The KFM team sourced and set up a catalogue of 60 items, liaising closely with Trust staff.

The Discharge Unit will aid improved flow of patients through emergency and planned care pathways by releasing inpatient bed capacity earlier in the day. The aim is for ”Golden Patients” to be brought to the Discharge Unit for breakfast to free up space on the wards before 11.00 to allow swifter admission for patients coming through Assessment Units and the Emergency Department.