Frimley Excellence

17/06/2026

Results from Round 1 of the Frimley Excellence World Cup of Improvement Tools are in! 👀

After some closely contested matches, the field has narrowed and the Round 2 fixtures are now set 📊

The next round kicks off tomorrow at 12:00pm sharp, and every vote counts

Will your favourite improvement tool make it through to the quarter-finals, or face an early exit? From PDSA and Process Mapping to SPC Charts and Gemba, the competition is heating up!

Make sure you cast your vote over on our Linked In Page here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/frimley-excellence and help decide which improvement tool will be crowned champion! 🏆 Don't let your favourite be eliminated without your support! 🫶

15/06/2026

Right Patient, Right Place: Improving Morning Flow to Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) ✅

We’re proud to celebrate the work of Hayley Peters and team following a recent quality improvement project within the Emergency Department, using the Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycle.

The improvement project focused on improving the flow of appropriate medical patients to the Medical same day emergency care (SDEC) unit during the morning period, helping to reduce pressure within the emergency department and ensure patients receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time.

The team’s aim was that each morning, the Medical SDEC Nurse in Charge worked alongside ED colleagues to identify and transfer suitable medical patients to SDEC early in the day. This enabled patients to receive timely assessment, treatment and care, with the goal of same-day discharge and avoiding unnecessary admission.

The results from the PDSA phase were encouraging with:
➡️ An average of 2.9 patients were transferred to SDEC each day
📈 A 40% increase in patients arriving on the unit between 08:00–08:59
⚖️ Post-ED clinician figures showing only a marginal decline of 5% (equating to approximately one patient per week) during the trial period

Following the results of the project, the team agreed to ‘adapt’ the process by maintaining the morning patient pull while excluding consult patients, recognising the impact on nursing capacity and triage time.

It’s great to see collaborative improvement work delivering positive operational and patient care benefits. We’re excited to see how the team continues to develop this process further, with ambitions to move towards a clinician-led model in the future.

11/06/2026

🏆 The Frimley Excellence World Cup of Improvement Tools is now LIVE!

Head over to our LinkedIn page and cast your votes in the first round of matches. Which improvement tools will progress to the next stage? ⚽📊

Vote now and support your favourites! 👇
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7470791981976432640

The Frimley Excellence World Cup of Improvement Tools 🏆 Match 4 - Playbook Showdown 📋 Process Map vs Think Like Another The disciplined tactician with detailed game plans faces the unpredictable wildcard coach inspired by celebrities, brands, and sporting legends. Process Map – A visual repr...

08/06/2026

Introducing the Frimley Excellence World Cup of Improvement Tools! 🏆

As the excitement of the Men’s Football World Cup ⚽ and Women’s Cricket World Cup🏏 builds this summer, we’re launching something a little different here at Frimley Excellence… Introducing our World Cup of Frimley Excellence Improvement Tools.

Over the coming weeks, 32 different improvement tools/techniques from the Frimley Excellence Way, our approach to continuous improvement, will go head-to-head in a knockout tournament to determine the ultimate champion.

From 5 Whys to PDSA Cycles, Process Mapping to SMART goals, each round will see tools compete for your votes on LinkedIn (and our internal Improver’s Network). Votes from both platforms will be combined to decide which tools progress through the tournament’s rounds until only one remains to lift the trophy! 🏆

Each week, we’re asking you to vote, encourage your colleagues and teams to vote, and reshare the polls to widen the conversation. However, this isn’t just about crowning a single “best” tool. We’re also interested in your stories. What improvements have you delivered using these tools? What worked well, what didn’t, and what have you learned along the way? The learning and insights behind the votes are just as valuable as the results themselves, helping us build a richer, shared understanding of improvement in practice.

The action kicks off on Thursday 11 June, so get involved, cast your vote, and share your experience to help showcase the tools that are making a real difference across our improvement community.

Who will take the title? Let the tournament begin! 🎉

Tools included:
3Cs (concern, cause, countermeasure) Table
5 Whys
5S (sort, set in order, shine, standardise, sustain)
Action Plan
Be Constrained
Circle Of Influence
Data Collection Plan
Dot Voting
Fishbone Diagram
Gemba
KNOT Chart
Maturity Assessment
MoSCoW (must do, should do, could do, won’t do)
Opportunity Matrix
Pareto Chart
PDSA Cycle
Poka Yoke
Problem Statement
Process Map
Project Charter
Run Chart
Runners, repeaters, strangers
SIPOC (suppliers, input, process, output, customers)
SMED (single minute exchange of die)
Spaghetti Diagram
SPC Chart (statistical process control)
Stakeholder Analysis – Impact/Power Grid
Standard Work
Think Like Another
Vision Statement & SMART Goals
Visual Management
WWW/EBI (what went well/even better if)

27/05/2026

Here's our recent Green Belt cohort in action, applying their Lean skills through interactive challenges 🎯

A truly multidisciplinary group, including nurses, doctors, physios and operational colleagues, showing how shared learning translates into real improvement across the Trust💡

Brilliant to see the Frimley Excellence way coming to life, with energy, collaboration, and a strong focus on sustainable change. Looking forward to seeing the impact this cohort continues to make across our services.

26/05/2026

It’s ok if improvement work doesn’t immediately achieve the outcome you hoped for, there’s still lessons to be learnt that can aid your understanding for future improvements. 💭

A great example of this came from one of our FX Huddle teams - the Stroke and Neuro therapies team at Wexham. 👏

The team had a scorecard that focused on improving patient participation levels within therapy sessions. Through root cause analysis, they identified several reasons why patients were not attending consistently:
• Patients were off the ward with family
• Some were not psychologically ready for therapy
• Others were unclear about when therapy sessions were taking place

To address these barriers, the team introduced a simple improvement countermeasure of weekly rehabilitation timetables so patients could know when sessions were happening and when they could attend. 🗓️

When the team reviewed the data before and during implementation of the improvement countermeasure, participation levels had not improved and the percentage of patients participating actually declined compared to pre-timetabling. 📉

However, this test still generated valuable learning. The team also found that more therapy sessions were being offered to patients. They hypothesised that the improved organisation created by rehab timetabling reduced the amount of staff time spent planning each morning, leading to more direct patient-facing time. 🗣️

Although the original aim of increasing participation levels has not yet been achieved, the team has decided to keep rehab timetabling as part of standard practice because of the operational improvements it created. ⭐

The team’s next step is to revisit their root cause analysis and test another countermeasure aimed at addressing different barriers to participation. 🔎

Not every improvement countermeasure delivers the outcome we expect first time - but brings deeper understanding and moves us closer to meaningful change. 🪜

25/05/2026

More White Belts come from our Gynaecology Ambulatory Centre at Heatherwood! ⚪ They identified their own cleaning 'bicycle book' waste example and improvement opportunities to create a better experience for both patients and staff at 👏

21/05/2026

We are sharing and celebrating the work from a quality improvement project from Dr Ghuncha Kamran, Dr Khine OO Mon, Dr Thant Nyein, Dr Sujan Rai who applied the Plan, Do, Study, Act cycle to drive meaningful change in clinical practice. 👏

Their project focused on improving the accurate measurement of lying and standing blood pressure in elderly patients to better identify orthostatic hypotension - a common but often overlooked cause of dizziness, falls, and hospital admissions.

Their aim was to address gaps in current practice and ensure a consistent, correct approach to blood pressure measurement during hospital admissions, ultimately improving diagnosis and management of orthostatic hypotension within a 3-month period.

To achieve this, a range of practical interventions were introduced:
🖼️ Clear instructional posters displayed across wards
🗣️ Teaching sessions and verbal reminders for nursing staff on patient arrival
🔔 Digital prompts within the Emergency Department and Care of the Elderly wards
💻 The creation of a simplified and more accessible Electronic Patient Record (EPR) order for blood pressure measurement

The results from their sample of patients included:
✅ 26% increase in number of lying & standing blood pressure taken on admission
✅ 21% increase in number of lying & standing blood pressure taken once patient admitted to elderly ward
✅ 27% increase on complete assessment in proper way of measuring lying & standing blood pressure
✅ 81% increase in blood pressure measurement EPR orders placed by medical team
✅ 10% increase in number hypotension cases identified

These results highlight how simple, targeted interventions can improve clinical outcomes. 🎯

Thank you to the team for leading such an impactful piece of work and contributing to better care for our older patients. 💙

20/05/2026

Congratulations to our latest cohort of Yellow Belt attendees on achieving their qualification this week! 👏

A solid “douze points” all round ⭐ with collaboration, creativity through process mapping, and a healthy dose of friendly competition across teams, brought to life through a memorable Mr Potato Head exercise!🥔

19/05/2026

We were delighted to present our Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Freeman, with her Green Belt Lanyard following the successful completion of her assessment last week. 👏

As Chair of our UEC Improvement Board, Charlotte has already been applying her FX Green Belt skills to coach teams and drive meaningful improvements across our Urgent and Emergency Care pathways, helping to deliver better outcomes and experiences for both patients and colleagues alike.

A fantastic achievement and a great example of leadership in continuous improvement across the organisation. Well done, Charlotte! 💚