A Teesside-based specialist gastroenterology team has been awarded a clinical excellence award after recently presenting their work on improving obstructive jaundice pathways for its patients.
The hepato-pancreatico-biliary (HPB) team, based at the University Hospital of North Tees, recently presented their work on the ‘Safety and Efficacy of Obstructive Jaundice Pathway in Emergency Assessment Unit’ at the British Society of Gastroenterology’s annual conference in Liverpool.
The teams work on improving this pathway awarded them a prestigious ‘Clinical Services Excellence’ third place award.
The consultant supervised, nurse-driven pathway has already helped to streamline HPB patients care in obstructive jaundice for 88 patients within the emergency assessment unit and has achieved an estimated £140,800 efficiency savings so far.
This has been done by managing patients within an outpatient pathway where they would otherwise historically be managed as inpatients.
Professor Vikramjit Mitra, consultant gastroenterologist and lead clinician for hepato-pancreatico-biliary cancers, said: “The pathway was first introduced in November 2023 at the University Hospital of North Tees.
“We have successfully managed 88 patients safely through this pathway so far. It has led to more appropriate initial radiological imaging, faster access to specialist HPB care and prompt treatment and avoidance of unnecessary hospital admissions for our patients.”
The HPB team have also been working closely with other consultant physician colleagues in the medical assessment unit, driving the pathways use further and improving patient outcomes by helping to reduce the need for them to attend hospital as an inpatient.
Vikram continues: “HPB conditions are very common, often complex and difficult to diagnose and treat. We are fortunate to have a brilliant multi-disciplinary team of highly skilled HPB physicians, specialist nurses, dietitians, radiologists, surgeons, anaesthetists and pathologists who offer an incredibly high standard of clinical care.
We’re really pleased with the acknowledgement for our work at the British Society of Gastroenterology’s annual conference and we’re passionate that this pathway should be explored in other areas in the organisation to further benefit our patients.”