Spire Healthcare receives internationally recognised Resuscitation Quality Improvement Excellence Award

• First UK and European healthcare provider recognised for commitment to ensuring competency in high-quality CPR
• Only third healthcare provider globally to receive this award

Spire Healthcare has been recognised for its commitment to excellence in high-quality CPR training. Receiving the internationally recognised Resuscitation Quality Improvement (RQI) Excellence Award, presented by Laerdal and RQI partner organisations, Spire Healthcare has become the only UK and European healthcare provider – and one of only three organisations globally – to achieve such recognition.

Spire Healthcare has partnered with Laerdal Medical since 2020 to standardise basic life support resuscitation training across Spire’s 39 hospital and over 50 clinical sites it runs in England, Wales and Scotland. In 2022 Spire moved to a central resuscitation service with a new standardised strategy, which is nurse and operating department practitioner led. This approach has enabled the standardisation and comparison of competence levels across all of Spire’s hospitals.

After a successful pilot of the RQI programme at Spire Cheshire Hospital, the e-learning cardiac arrest simulation training was extended across all Spire hospital sites. The RQI initiative offers the potential for expansion of training to all 16,800 of Spire’s clinical colleagues, unrivalled by many healthcare providers.

94% compliance

All Spire clinical colleagues have 24/7 access to the online learning simulation sessions though quarterly, rather than annual training cycles. In addition to the current compliance rate of 94%, the programme is also reporting an achievement of 98% competence in chest compressions and airway management. This demonstrates extremely high clinical skill level, leading to improved patient safety. Nationally published in-hospital cardiac arrest data reports cardiorespiratory occurrence rates are currently 1 to 1.5 per 1,000 hospital admissions. Spire Healthcare’s comparative data is currently approximately 0.003 occurrences per 1,000 treatment care episodes, which is considerably lower than the national average.

Spire Healthcare's Professor Lisa Grant receiving the Resuscitation Quality Improvement Excellence Award from Laerdal's Marco Grit (R) and James Buchanan (L)

Data sharing

While Spire has been recognised for demonstrating leadership in introducing this innovative resuscitation quality improvement programme, Spire’s central resuscitation team is also supporting and advising NHS trusts about the programme. Safety data generated during the Spire programme is shared with other healthcare providers to help improve their own patient safety outcomes.

Professor Lisa Grant, Group Clinical Director and Chief Nursing Officer of Spire Healthcare said: “Laerdal Medical is a world leader in resuscitation initiatives, and we are proud to be partnering to develop this innovative quality improvement programme that is improving patient safety outcomes for both our NHS and private patients alike. Using a simulation-based learning platform that incorporates human factor training, ‘little and often’ training sessions measure and verify competence, helping colleagues retain those critical life-saving skills. This is a truly innovative QI programme for high-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Spire’s central resuscitation team and our multi-disciplinary hospital teams should be proud of their achievements, and for helping to share their skills and knowledge with NHS colleagues.”

Marco Grit, Vice President Europe – Middle East and Africa of Laerdal Medical said: “As part of Laerdal’s mission to help save lives, we strive to enhance healthcare providers' ability to perform high-quality CPR, ultimately contributing to better patient outcomes. In this spirit, we are honoured to internationally recognise the remarkable achievements of Spire Healthcare. We recognise Spire’s courage that is required to engage in such important initiative and their truly inspiring exemplary commitment to quality resuscitation training. Successfully implementing RQI across all 39 hospital sites and achieving 94% compliance is an impressive feat. Such an accomplishment would not have been possible without Spire’s hard work and dedication.” 

Spire Healthcare has an uncompromising focus on patient safety, quality and clinical governance to secure the best outcomes for patients. 98% of Spire Healthcare’s inspected locations are rated ‘Good,’ ‘Outstanding’ or the equivalent by health inspectors in England, Wales and Scotland – it has the highest number of Outstanding hospitals in the independent sector. Spire retains the clinical agility and responsiveness to build high quality and comprehensive clinical training programmes for all clinical employees.