In health care, quality improvement (QI) is the framework that supports the Trust’s strategic plan to systematically improve the way care is delivered to patients. At BHRUT our chosen QI methodology is The Pride Way.

The team who are responsible for teaching, coaching and empowering our Trust staff in The Pride Way are the KPO (Kaizen Promotion Office) Team. We are based at Queen’s hospital, but work across all Trust sites.

The Pride Way has been adopted from the Virginia Mason Institute (VMI): part of the Virginia Mason Medical Centre in Seattle, US. The institute has been set up as a centre which promotes excellence in quality improvement using lean methodologies. We are currently one of five UK NHS Trusts in partnership with the Virginia Mason Institute and NHS Improvement.

Our KPO Team of specialists have been trained and mentored in The Pride Way tools and methodologies, and these tools have in turn been taught to others in the Trust through the many training and support opportunities provided by the Team, through both formal and informal training, coaching, Rapid Process Improvements Workshops (RPIW) and Kaizen events.

Our Pride Way triangle shows our mission statement ‘to provide great care to every patient, every day’. You can see our patients are at the top, meaning they are the sole focus of our work, and the Pride Way sits at the bottom and underpins and drives everything we do.

For more information please contact the Team bhrut.kpo@nhs.net