Quality improvement project to improve the standardisation and efficiency of occupational therapy initial contact and assessment within a mental health inpatient service

Timely contact and assessment between occupational therapists (OTs) and patients are vital to understanding their needs and creating person-centred interventions. Any delays in completing contact and assessment will likely impact patients’ experience and outcomes. The aim of this study was to ensure that 90% of all patients in a male and female ward received OT initial contact within two working days of admission by the end of June 2020. With the teams working in collaboration, the first change idea of increasing the initial contact in two working days was introduced and the impact assessed on two of the five wards. The Plan–Do–Study–Act cycles used for this test of change included: Standardising the initial contact, informal training for the audit tool created to measure the admission process, increasing efficiency for documenting OT contact, updated exclusion/inclusion criteria for OT initial contact, refining documentation for contact and assessment, and the impact of COVID-19 on initial contact and admission processes. Our test of change resulted in an increase in the average initial contact from 12.5% to 71.24%. Following this success, we spread the project to the three remaining wards. Feedback from OTs using the tools we introduced ensured that we made tools as user-friendly as possible. Likewise, teams who achieved particularly high compliance noted the importance of dedicating time to conduct initial contact. Our team embarked on a quality improvement project that aimed to set a standard and increase compliance for achieving this standard. Alongside this, we developed an appropriate and pragmatic measure to track our progress. While we did not achieve 90%, we observed substantial improvements made across the participating service. Using the findings from the project, we have spread this approach to other wards and believe that it could easily be transferrable as a discreet package to other mental health settings.