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Consultant physicians working with patients - Royal College of ...

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3 Supporting the delivery <strong>of</strong> high-quality careWe disseminate via targeted reports and communicationsto the most involved audiences, and host nationalconferences and regional workshops. We provideslide sets which can be edited <strong>with</strong> local data to makedissemination as simple as possible and to encouragean accurate and consistent message. Broader audiencesare targeted through press activity, RCP publications,and presentations at regional and national conferences,workshops and meetings, along <strong>with</strong> numerousacademic papers published in peer-reviewed journals.Implementation activity depends very much on theproject topic and the specific findings orrecommendations. Generic approaches include use <strong>of</strong>conference sessions and regional workshops to discussfindings and application <strong>of</strong> recommendations in detail,gathering feedback (via anonymous voting, discussion,focus groups) and creating action plans for local teams.Peer or expert reviews are <strong>of</strong>ten <strong>of</strong>fered.The focus is always on the evidence base, bespokedatasets and identification <strong>of</strong> what will work inindividual circumstances. Audit data are widely shared,in various formats, to support patient choice initiatives,regulatory activities, such as the Care QualityCommission’s Quality risk pr<strong>of</strong>iles, 8 policydevelopment, for example, the strategy for services forchronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) inEngland, 9 and evaluation <strong>of</strong> public expenditure such asthe National Audit Office report, Progress in improvingstroke care. 10Quality improvement projectsIn line <strong>with</strong> the key objectives <strong>of</strong> the white paper inEngland, Equity and excellence: liberating the NHS, 11and its own A strategy for quality, 1 the RCP manages anumber <strong>of</strong> innovative projects that aim to driveimprovements in specific aspects <strong>of</strong> healthcare wheredeficiencies or variations are identified through nationalclinical audit. Working in collaboration <strong>with</strong> specialistsocieties and patient groups to plan projects, and closely<strong>with</strong> clinical teams at the front line, a number <strong>of</strong> qualityimprovement techniques are implemented to supportefforts to improve the patient experience and outcomes<strong>of</strong> healthcare services. 12AccreditationAccreditation is a self-assessment and external peerassessment evaluation process used to assess accuratelya service’s level <strong>of</strong> performance in relation to establishedstandards. Healthcare providers are required to produceevidence to demonstrate their compliance <strong>with</strong> thestandards. Accreditation is seen as a ‘badge <strong>of</strong> quality’for a healthcare provider and is important tocommissioners and <strong>patients</strong> alike.The RCP’s accreditation schemes have at their heart theHQIP-approach to pr<strong>of</strong>essionally led clinical serviceaccreditation. They aim to improve the quality, safetyand outcomes <strong>of</strong> healthcare, the patient experience andservice delivery. The schemes are pr<strong>of</strong>essionally led bymultidisciplinary teams. They are supportive <strong>of</strong>healthcare services and as such include training daysand facilitate sharing <strong>of</strong> best practice among teams. Akey feature is the self-assessment and improvementtools available to services for them to measure their ownperformance in relation to the standards before anaccreditation assessment takes place. If a healthcareprovider does not meet the standards at the time <strong>of</strong> theassessment, the assessors recommend key actions andwork <strong>with</strong> the service to support them in gainingaccreditation.Accreditation standards are reviewed periodically and inthis way are used as a driver for quality improvement asthe required level <strong>of</strong> quality is raised over time. Workingin partnership <strong>with</strong> our clinical audit colleagues is key, asconducting and reviewing clinical audits is an importantpart <strong>of</strong> accreditation criteria for the various schemes.Health informaticsGood quality medical record keeping is essential forgood quality care and the wide variation in the structureand content <strong>of</strong> medical notes presents a major problemfor the development <strong>of</strong> electronic healthcare. Thestandardisation <strong>of</strong> the administrative, demographic andclinical content <strong>of</strong> health records is needed to ensure unambiguousrecording, safe communication and reliableintegration <strong>of</strong> data held in different record systems. Itis also essential to ensure that any analysis <strong>of</strong> aggregateddata is valid and reliable. The need for informationstandards to support both safe clinical care and clinicalresearch has been confirmed by many reports in thelast few years. 9–17 If clinical research is to be effectivelyintegrated into the work <strong>of</strong> the NHS, standardisation<strong>of</strong> clinical information recording is required.In brief, information record keeping standards areneeded to ensure: appropriate data capture, in both structured formand free text, in different clinical and researchcontexts and locations valid and reproducible data extraction intosummary recordsC○ <strong>Royal</strong> <strong>College</strong> <strong>of</strong> Physicians 2013 269

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