Clinical Governance + clinical audit Flashcards
Define clinical governance
Continuously improving quality of service
What are the benefits of clinical governance?
- Improved patient care through better standards
- Effective use of services
Who are the care quality commission?
- Regularly inspect hospitals, care homes + GPs
- Graded: inadequate, require improvement, good + outstanding
- Can impose fines, give cautions
What are the key components of clinical governance?
- Patient development
- Professional development (education, audit)
- Organisation development (teamwork)
When should SOPs be reviewed?
Every 2 years
What is the main benefit of SOPs?
Assures the quality + consistency of the service at all times
What is a clinical audit?
Improving care of patients by looking at what you are doing, learning from it + changing practice
What is the difference between and audit + research?
- Audit reviews current practice
- Research seeks new knowledge
What are the steps to an audit cycle?
- Identify problem or issue
- Set criteria + standards
- Observe practice/data collection
- Compare performance w/ criteria + standards
- Implementing change
Step 1: identify problem or issue
- High risk/cost
- Critical incidents
- NICE or local guidelines
Step 2: set standards
- Criteria + target = standard (realistic, measurable + agreed)
- Compare current practice against desirable standards
- Derived from guidelines
Step 3: observe practice/data collection
- Recording evidence
- Collecting appropriate data
Step 4: compare performance w/ standards
- May use charts to present results
- Decide + get agreement on change
Step 5: implementing change
Step where change is made
Step 6: re-audit
To ascertain whether improvement in care have been implemented
