Clinical Audit
The Iain Rennie Hospice at Home uses clinical audit to ensure that our patients and their families always receive the highest possible standards of care. In conjunction with this, we are always looking at ways of improving our care.
The National Minimum Standards of Care act as a framework against which IRHH assesses and safeguards its own high standards. We undergo an annual inspection against which our standards of care are reviewed. This statutory inspection ensures that we are accountable not only to the Health Care Commission, but also to all the stakeholders who contribute to the work we do.
There are many aspects to the clinical governance at IRHH and these include:
Clinical audit which aims to establish whether best practice is being followed and seeks to improve patient care and outcomes by looking at procedures and following through by implementing change, as appropriate. We have a clinical audit group which is comprised of members of all the nursing teams and an IRHH volunteer which meets once a month to discuss standards and carry out the audit process. The Clinical Audit Lead at IRHH has overall responsibility for auditing and establishing our clinical standards and is a member of the Mount Vernon Cancer Network Audit Group and the Buckinghamshire Palliative Care Outcome Group.
Patient and Carer Satisfaction Surveys which are sent out routinely to all users of our nursing service asking their opinion of our care. The surveys are used by five other local hospices to compare our results against similar services. The anonymous results are collated, staff and trustees briefed and an action plan formed to implement any changes deemed necessary. You can download these questionnaires here.
Our Community Consultation Group (CCG) is a group of carers, family representatives, volunteers and health care professionals which comments on aspects of the IRHH service. Find out more.
Feedback. We have a robust system for analysing complaints, comments and compliments as we feel it is very important to learn from our mistakes and acknowledge our successes. Find out more.
Staff Support plays a key part in ensuring that all staff members can carry out their work to the best possible standard. All members of the nursing team are offered regular clinical supervision and a rolling programme for significant event discussion is undertaken throughout the year. An annual wide ranging education programme is organised by our education lead ensuring all staff are kept up to date with national cancer standards and end of life initiatives.
Adverse Incidents, for example a drug error or a failure of internal systems, are recorded and regular reports are sent to our clinical governance group and our trustees. This report indicates areas where further education may be necessary or areas where better communication systems may be required.
