Work to reduce and prevent hypothermia in newborn babies has led to the George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust receiving a Highly Commended award at the recent national HSJ patient safety awards.
The Keeping Babies Warm campaign launched in spring 2018 and has since seen a significant drop in babies being admitted to the neonatal unit at the George Eliot Hospital because they weren’t warm enough, during the first few hours after birth.
Reducing hypothermia in new-born babies was one of the initiatives identified by the maternity and neonatal team that is taking part in the Maternity and Neonatal Safety Collaborative - a three-year programme to support improvements in the quality and safety of maternity and neonatal units across England. The project aimed to reduce the number of unnecessary admissions to the neonatal unit and make new parents aware of the risks of hypothermia and refresh midwives knowledge by sharing best practice.
The project team launched an awareness campaign featuring a short video setting out nine simple steps to avoid hypothermia supplemented by posters and education support
both in house and via social media. The maternity team also gave away lots of baby hats which had been kindly donated by members of the public.
Director of Nursing, Daljit Athwal said: “We are extremely proud of our Keeping Babies Warm initiative which has improved patient safety at the hospital by reducing the number of babies with hypothermia. This is a great example of multidisciplinary, team working. Congratulations to all staff involved with the project.”
