AN interactive table-top game which teaches hospital staff the difficulties of managing patient flow in the face of unpredictable hospital admission demands could be rolled out nationally, after being created in Dorset.

Improvement managers Dan Richter and Ian Neville, from the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (RBCH), presented their Game Of Flow training tool at the national NHS Providers’ Showcase Conference in October.

Since then 13 organisations, including The British Red Cross, acute trusts, mental health trusts, and Health Education England have also shown an interest in adopting the non-hierarchical teaching tool.

Game of Flow works by setting teams of three to four people the challenge of managing patients’ journeys through an acute hospital while facing a series of realistic scenarios, such as staff shortages, equipment issues, or external major incidents.

Teams have to make decisions that will alleviate the pressures, such as whether to deploy staff around the hospital or prioritise patient transfers; employ additional agency or locum staff, or whether to divert ambulances to another team’s hospital.

Dan said the game demonstrated how diverse staff groups – from doctors to physiotherapists and porters – all played an important role in influencing the patients’ journey through the hospital.

He added: “Leadership skills at all levels are inherent in playing the game successfully. Games such as the Game of Flow simulate complex real-world problems like hospital flow and allow experimentation without any blame or consequences attached to decisions, so learning can be conducted in a safe environment.

“The aim is to give staff a greater understanding of the problems faced by an acute trust and provide them with an opportunity to learn how seemingly small improvements can make a huge difference to patient care and outcomes.”

Game of Flow has been played by about 200 staff at RBCH since its launch in September 2018 and is currently being used to help with staff training as part of its Leadership for Improvement month in November.