ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Quality Always' Clinical Assessment and Accreditation Scheme (CAAS), which consists of a process of assessments, reviews and accreditation in community healthcare services, was established in 2014 to drive improvements in the quality of patient care. The authors set out to understand whether the methodologies put in place to establish quality patient care were effective within the community nursing setting. AIMS: To understand whether a quality and safe care champions network would support frontline community staff to embed evidence-based practice and affect the quality of care received by patients in the community setting. METHOD: A study was undertaken on data from the CAAS, as well as patient safety and experience data, to identify whether there was any correlation between quality and safe care champions and the quality of patient care. FINDINGS: The authors identified data and practical examples to demonstrate a correlation between the engagement of champions in a community nursing team and improvement in quality standards for patients, including the most effective methods of engaging the community nursing quality and safe care champions. CONCLUSION: The authors conducted a benefits realisation exercise using elements of the East London NHS Foundation Trust's framework. This provided useful information for the community trust as a proof of concept regarding supporting a network of Quality and safe care champions in the community setting and understanding their impact on safe patient care.
Subject(s)
Community Health Services , Exercise , Humans , London , Nursing, Team , Patient SafetyABSTRACT
Derbyshire Community Health Services (DCHS) NHS Foundation Trust provides a wide range of community-based health services. After the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found gaps in the trust's assurance process, its board decided to develop a method of continuous quality improvements that could be used as a basis for the trust's quality assurance system. The trust adapted and built on an acute model so it was suitable for community services. The final assurance system, Quality Always, has four elements: the clinical assessment and accreditation scheme; leadership development; 'champions' within clinical teams to support and promote the scheme; and dashboards to record and monitor progress. A system to recognise and reward achievement was essential for success. Quality Always has resulted in better care quality, an improved CQC rating, a sense of achievement among staff, the development of support networks, learning (especially among support staff) and good practice being shared.
