Following a member survey we conducted toward the end of last year, we found that many NOA members were keen to learn from each other about PROMs. We reached out to PROMs teams across our membership to see if they would be willing to support other Trusts. Two trusts that took this opportunity were the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (ROH) and the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (RJAH). Below we have included a Q and A with Leky Parveen (LP), Clinical Effectiveness Manager at ROH and Sammy Davies (SD), Quality Outcomes Manager at RJAH on the benefits of such collaborative working.
Have you ever attended an NOA PROMs workshop?
LP I attended the PROMs workshop in August 2019. I was new in post and it was my first NOA event.
SD I’ve attended two NOA PROMs workshops – March 2019 and August 2019.
What did you think of the NOA PROMs workshops?
LP It was definitely a good networking opportunity – useful and insightful
SD I found both workshops really useful. They have been a great opportunity to share about the work we are doing at RJAH and its been particularly useful to have feedback and questions from other NOA members at the workshops. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the work we’re doing day to day that getting other perspectives is refreshing.
How important do you think it is for Trusts – particularly NOA member organsiations to work together on PROMS?
LP It’s important to share learning and good practice more than anything else. We all have the same goals but we work differently to achieve them. Even the structure of our teams is different which has been interesting to see.
SD It’s important. At RJAH we look at our gains in relation to the Trusts that are in the NOA – so it’s nice to be able to speak to other members directly. With the NOA involved, we can start to benchmark against each other – I think it’s definitely positive. We all seem to have the same targets and it’s interesting to see what others are doing.
Tell me more about your experience of buddying with another NOA member Trust around PROMs
LP I’m currently working with Sammy at RJAH. After the NOA PROMs workshop last Summer, I invited her to visit ROH to find out more about our PROMs processes. Sammy covers informatics as well as PROMS so it was useful that on the visit, she also got to meet and swap tips with a member of the informatics team at ROH.
For me it was great to be able to learn about the different team dynamics across the Trusts, such as the size of our teams and the types of data we collect. A common goal between us is that, like many Trusts, we are both working to transition from paper to electronics.
SD It was at the August 2019 NOA PROMs workshop that I met Leky. As she covers Audit as well as Outcomes, it was really useful for me to find out how audit links into her PROMs work. We went through processes and how they work and how ROH collects data. It’s been really interesting to see what they do in informatics departments at ROH – so much I never thought of doing with data – it really gave me lots of ideas of how to improve processes at RJAH.
Would you recommend other NOA members get involved in PROMs buddying?
LP I would definitely recommended that people go and visit other NOA member organisations or have virtual meetings. I am more than happy to accommodate more visits at ROH and look forward to visiting RJAH and hopefully other Trusts in future.
SD I would recommend others get involved for sure. Sometimes you work so closely in an area and if you don’t take the time to look around and learn from others, you miss out on things. Working with Leky has definitely shown me that. In our area of work, it can sometimes feel like you are making things up as you go along but this sort of collaborative working gives you reassurance that you are doing something right. It’s all about working together and getting inspiration from others instead of reinventing the wheel.
If anyone in the PROMS team at your organisation is interested in working with another NOA member around PROMs, get in touch.
Our next PROMs workshop (date TBC) will have presentations from the National Joint Registry and the Welsh PROMs team. To register your interest, email us on info.noa@nhs.net