NHS England Safer Tracheostomy Care National Patient Safety Improvement Program (NatPatSIP) evaluation (NIHR, April 2023)

Summary

Inconsistent and poorly coordinated systems of tracheostomy care commonly result in frustrations, delays, and harm. The Safer Tracheostomy Care in Adults bundle was a programme of 18 interventions implemented across 20 hospitals in England between August 2016 and January 2018. These interventions were designed to improve the quality and safety of care for patients who have had tracheostomies.

This evaluation report outlines why the interventions were needed and assesses their impact, including an estimated reduction in total hospital length of stay per tracheostomy admission of 33.02 days, corresponding to a potential reduction of over £27,000 per admission.

Content

Hospitals that implemented the Safer Tracheostomy Care initiative interventions saw improvements across a number of quality, safety and efficiency for patients who had tracheostomies, these improvements included:

• reduced length of stay in hospital 
• reduced incident severity
• reductions in anxiety and depression. 

The level of these improvements varied across hospitals, as did the type of interventions implemented. The hospitals also had different characteristics and populations which they served.