Dr Sarah Keir
Consultant Physician in Stroke Medicine and Medicine of the Elderly Western General Hospital, Edinburgh
Nominated by: Dr Catherine Quinn, Specialist Registrar, Western General Hospital
How does the nominee inspire you?
Sarah has made me, and many other registrars strive to improve our medical knowledge, communication skills and clinical decision making skills so that we can give patient-centred care at a level that Dr Keir would expect. She has become my 'gold standard' of good geriatric medicine. Her patient safety and quality improvement work has allowed me to see the benefit of constantly reviewing any changes that are made to patient care, to figure what works and what can still be improved upon. She takes great care to give great care which is an inspiration in itself.
Contribution to medical practice and impact on care
Dr Keir is passionate about providing safe, quality care for every patient. She has been very active in the Scottish Patient Safety Programme and leads on many of the Quality Improvement Projects in the MOE department in North Edinburgh. She involves all the juniors in audit and QI and supports them throughout. She feeds the results back to the entire department in bite-size chunks on a weekly basis so that we all know what we're aiming for and what we need to improve upon. I've watched prescribing errors, HAI's and Stroke complications fall as a result of her drive to improve quality of care.
Dr Keir has an incredible wealth of knowledge when it comes to Stroke Medicine and Geriatric Medicine. Even more impressive than this, is her ability to apply that knowledge on an individual level to each and every patient that she cares for. There is no 'one size fits all approach'. She is incredibly skilled at communicating with patients and carers in a way that allows everyone's questions to be addressed, helping them to come to a decision that is patient specific. I would gladly have her caring for my loved ones. She is supportive as a leader, guiding when necessary, whilst encouraging input from all team members. She is always willing to teach and gives informative, constructive feedback which benefits doctors, and ultimately, patients.