clinical audits Flashcards
(12 cards)
What is a clinical audit?
Defined by NHS:
“a way to find out if healthcare is being provided in line with standards and lets care providers and patients know where their service is doing well, and where there could be improvements”
In line with standards is the key to audit.
What is the difference between clinical audit and research
Research is designed to create new knowledge, whereas audit and service evaluation define, inspect and evaluate current care.
Research has defined methodologies with a hypothesis and often new interventions. Service evaluation and audit are simpler. Designs aim to ask what a service is delivering? Is it doing it well? Or in the case of audit is it meeting defined standards. Research will require ethical approval where audit and service evaluation will not.
examples of standards in healthcare
- Quality of the service
- Clinical and cost effectiveness of the treatment,
- Health & safety standards
- Patient experience
- Communication
- Support
- Wellbeing
- Trust values
- Respect and dignity
- Accessible and responsive care
- Public health.
- Accurate and secure record
- Incident reports with no missing records or gaps in information.
- Staff records, including relevant certifications, up to date CPD
- RCSLT competencies
- Waiting times
examples of NHS standards
- Non-Urgent Referrals: The maximum waiting time for non-urgent, consultant-led treatments is 18 weeks from the day your appointment is booked through the NHS e-Referral Service, or when the hospital or service receives your referral letter.
- Urgent Cancer Referrals: The maximum waiting time for suspected cancer is 2 weeks from the day your appointment is booked through the NHS e-Referral Service, or when the hospital or service receives your referral letter.
Standards can be set at a range of relms
NHS
Service
Team
Indivdual
Audits at service level use the…
Care Quality Commission (CQC).CQC is England’s regulatory body of health and adult social care providers. CQC was established in the Health and Social Care Act (2008). CQC replaced pre-existing regulatory bodies with the aim of:
- Reducing the burden of regulatory processes of services
- Adapting to the changing health and social care sector
- Improving people’s ability to make informed choices about the care they access
Fundamental standards include person centred care, safeguarding from abuse, safety, consent, food and drink, premises and equipment, complaints, staffing etc.
How does the CQC regulate?
Monitoring- CQC monitors services via performance and risk indicators
Feedback from service users and patient representation groups
Inspections- comprehensive inspections
Focused inspections.
Service Audit standards relevant to SLT
All patients should have brain scans in 12 hours
Swallow screen within 3
Swallow assessment within 3 days
All rehabilitation agreed by 5 days
Audits at the Team level
This might be your SLT team or the MDT you work in. Although you might be auditing the work you do, it often feeds into national standards as in the cases of stroke and cleft care.
RCSLT suggests quality services: (3 features)
- Engage with commissioners to provide an effective and responsive service for users.
2.Are appropriately and sustainably resourced.
3.Meet local and national standards and are fully accountable for all their activity.
Aspects to consider when planning a service and thinking about service improvement:
Accessibility
Equity
Effectiveness
Relevance
Efficiency
Responsiveness
Safety
Appropriateness
Compliance with standards
How to carry out an audit:
- Identify the audit topic
- Set the standards at the relevant level e.g. NHS, service or team level (design the method of how you are going to collect this)
- Collect the data
- Analyse the data (was the standard met?)
- Implement change
