Synergy Health, a provider of specialist services to healthcare providers, has completed a successful first year in partnership with Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust.
The firm was appointed to take over the running of an in-house decontamination service for the Surrey, UK-based Trust for five years in 2011. The aim was to improve turnaround times and to achieve regulatory compliance. No financial details were revealed.
The new partnership has produced a significant increase in productivity and instrument turnaround times have speeded up. Defect rates have reduced from 2–3% to 0.34%, enabling the hospitals to improve patient safety and costs.
Synergy Health won the contract due to its ability to offer competitive prices and its proven track record in hospital sterile services. The Trust transferred 40 of the previous facility employees to the new unit, which has enabled them to benefit from working in a newly designed environment and to receive training to ensure they are working to the highest standards.
The introduction of key performance indicators has allowed the Trust to measure the success of its decontamination service more accurately. It is now also able to identify any problems easily and holds meetings at regular intervals, allowing for improved communication. In addition it can measure the adherence of its staff to processes and governance.
Adrian Coward, chief executive of Synergy Health, UK and Ireland, said: “The Trust is seeing an improvement in the service and different departments within the organisation, as greater engagement is bringing in quicker results.”
“We are delighted to complete the first year of partnership with the Trust. The outsourcing of the sterile services has allowed the Trust to enhance patient safety while making important savings. We will strive to ensure we focus on the needs of the hospital to continue to deliver excellent and safe patient care in the coming years.”
Synergy Health is a provider of outsourced hospital sterilisation services in Europe with 19 facilities across the UK and further facilities in Belgium, Netherlands and China. It sterilises around 60 million surgical instruments each year from NHS acute and primary Trusts and the independent sector throughout the country.
