News

The patient safety initiative Martha’s Rule is being rolled out in hospital emergency departments throughout England, with the support of a team of patient safety experts in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Martha’s Rule has been developed in response to the death of Martha Mills and other similar cases and it actively encourages patients, families and carers to tell staff if they are worried if their physical health is getting worse.

It has now been implemented in every acute trust inpatient setting in Yorkshire and the Humber, as part of the national patient safety programmes delivered by the Patient Safety Collaborative, supported by Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber in partnership with the Improvement Academy.

At the same time, the Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Collaborative have been supporting seven sites across England to test Martha’s Rule in emergency departments. They are now co-ordinating its national roll-out in all emergency departments.

Leading the work from Yorkshire is Dr Lizzie Sweeting, a GP and Martha’s Rule and Deterioration Workstream Lead at the Improvement Academy. She said:

“Leading the Martha’s Rule in the emergency department pilot has been a challenging but exciting process. We’ve had great engagement from our seven national pilot sites plus the wider learning community.

“We’re excited to see how the programme develops as it spreads into all emergency departments around England.”

Lizzie and team provide expertise and coaching in quality improvement methods, in one-to-one sessions and in group workshops. They provide enhanced support where needed; organise regular learning and sharing sessions; and help colleagues to identify and measure the impact of Martha’s Rule.

Jenny Hamer, Head of Portfolio at Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber, said: “We are proud to be playing a key role in helping trusts to implement Martha’s Rule, which has its origins in a tragedy which may have been avoided if a family’s concerns had been acted on, earlier.

“Each hospital is displaying its own dedicated phone number for patients, families and staff to call to request a rapid review when they are concerned a patient’s condition is deteriorating.

“Their number will be found on posters and on the hospital website, or by asking staff.”

The three core components of Martha’s Rule are:

• Patients will be asked, at least daily, about how they are feeling, and if they are getting better or worse, and this information will be acted on in a structured way.
• All staff will be able, at any time, to ask for a review from a different team if they are concerned that a patient is deteriorating, and they are not being responded to.
• This escalation route will also always be available to patients themselves, their families and carers and advertised across the hospital.