National award recognition for quality improvement work
7 April 2015
A MEMBER of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals staff has been named a winner in a national NHS awards ceremony recognising great leaders in the NHS.
Steve Harrison, Head of Quality Improvement at STH who set up the Sheffield Microsystem Coaching Academy (MCA), a UK first, won the NHS Coach/Mentor of the Year accolade at the NHS Leadership Recognition Awards in London. The MCA inspires a generation of NHS staff to improve the quality of care they provide to patients by 
becoming improvement coaches.
Steve went forward to the national awards along with STH colleague Dr Diana Greenfield, a consultant nurse, after both won their categories at the regional awards in Leeds.
Diana was shortlisted in the NHS Inspirational Leader of the Year category for her work pioneering a range of services for cancer survivors living with the long-term effects of cancer, but was not named as a national winner on this occasion.
Steve said of his success: “It is very surprising and pleasing to have won. The whole thing is a team effort and this is a recognition of all the work the microsystem improvement teams and coaches have done, as well as those running the MCA. It is all centered around quality improvement leading to better care for patients.”
Since 2012 Steve has coached a wide range of clinical teams across Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust which has already led to a reduction in patient waiting times by 63% in the renal outpatients department at the Northern General Hospital and a reduction in average length of inpatient stays by one day for respiratory medicine patients.
He has also trained over 80 healthcare professionals to become microsystem coaches under the auspices of the UK’s first Microsystem Coaching Academy. The Sheffield MCA aims to improve the quality of care Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides for patients in Sheffield through the development of improvement coaches, who work with frontline teams to put quality improvement at the heart of everyday clinical care.
Steve also works with the Dartmouth Microsystem Academy, a US-based microsystems coaching academy, and has worked with CF Canada and an Irish Emergency Department microsystem improvement programme.
ENDS
Picture: Steve Harrison (left) receives his award
MEDIA CONTACT:
John Birch, Communications Officer
Tel: 0114 226 5033
Email: john.birch@sth.nhs.uk
