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Enhancing care practices through innovation

A new centre is to be launched by the University to help health and social care service providers enhance practice by improving innovation and reducing waste and duplication.

The Enhancing Practice and Innovation Centre for Care (EPICC) will be part of our School of Health & Social Care. The official launch takes place on Friday 6 November, in the Centuria Building. Where Professor Aidan Mullan, Director of Nursing and Patient Safety with the North East Strategic Health Authority, will be the keynote speaker.

The Centuria Building is currently undergoing a £17 million extension to create a new high-tech health science and sport building.

Improving the quality of care Professor Paul Keane, Dean of the School of Health & Social Care, said: ‘The establishment of EPICC is timely as the Department of Health has created a new Directorate with the overarching priorities of quality, innovation, productivity and prevention, and an emphasis on enhancing practice and innovation.

‘EPICC supports this agenda by bringing together initiatives already underway within the School, such as the Excellence in Practice Accreditation Scheme led by Professor Robert McSherry. To us innovation means doing things differently, doing them better and more productively. We want people to think differently about what they do and how they can help reduce waste and duplication and save time, but more importantly to improve the quality of care for service users.

‘Our new facility will be available to students, university and service staff and people with good ideas and initiatives that will influence the enhancement of care to service users and carers.’

The Centre’s Director, Wade Tovey, the School's Assistant Dean (Enterprise, Knowledge Transfer and Employer Engagement), added: ‘We have had strong support for this new initiative from a number of senior health and social care managers, as it will provide opportunities for their staff to progress ideas and initiatives.’

A centre of excellence Professor Keane explained: ‘We want EPICC to be an international centre of excellence in facilitating and promoting practice enhancement, innovation and patient safety. Our students are the employees of the future and it is essential that they also understand the importance of innovation in practice through learning and teaching within their programmes. ‘The School has already been commended for this and we need to now develop this further. EPICC will provide a single point of contact and give the School a unified approach when liaising with external stakeholders.’

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