CQC Inspections - tips from recent conferences

Outstanding CQC Inspections Conference – London, June 2016

Allocate Software sponsored the recent event Outstanding CQC Inspections in Hospitals. There were many speakers including the CEO of Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the Director of Governance at Salford Royal Foundation Trust, and Ellen Armistead, Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals from the Care Quality Commission.

There were many highly interesting and uplifting presentations, and we were very proud that HealthAssure/CQCAssure was cited several times by different delegates as their go-to-tool for managing and reporting on CQC compliance.

Key Tip from the conference

One particularly innovative expansion of the friends and family test was explained by Salford Royal. Here they have an open invitation to all their staff; that if they use any of Salford Royal’s services as a patient, then they can request a short meeting with an Executive (about an hour) to describe their experiences. These are highly informal meetings over a cup of tea, where the discussion points are loosely framed around questions of “did you feel safe?”, “did you feel well cared for?” etc, to align with the CQC’s 5 domains. Salford say they get a massive amount of information from these meetings.

Do you do a similar thing? Could you use this approach in your Trust? Let us know in the comments field at the bottom of the page.

Patient Safety Congress – ‘Preparing for inspections: key lessons in compliance’ session

This session featured Claire Campbell, Director of Governance, George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust & Carolyn Jenkinson, Head of Hospital Inspection, Care Quality Commission.

Key facts

Now all acute hospitals have been inspected an analysis of their findings will be published in August
A new CQC strategy will begin in April 2017 – read the business plan
in the future the CQC will carry out targeted core services inspections

Tips from the CQC

challenge your beliefs about your organisation – what do you believe to be true? If you think an area is ‘good’ make sure you are fully assured – data will give you a picture but inspections do not always match this.
find your areas of weakness and make sure there is leadership at every level
when carrying out your mock inspections do as the CQC do – we seek out and observe the most vulnerable patients – do the notes match what the eyes can see? For example the notes may say the patients pain has been assessed and treated but if the patient is obviously still in pain then the care is not of a good enough quality.

Don’t be afraid to discuss issues with the CQC- the goal is improvement – ask ‘what does the trust need from the inspection’ – we can support you to solve issues. Carolyn gave an example where septis was a known issue at a particular trust but the staff said the process in place were not working, the CQC has no choice but to take action on this occassion (we don’t always take action, and try to be proportionate to the issue). CQC put conditions on the trusts registration such as weekly septis reports, the trust has now turned things around and the organisation are now leaders in the area and have embedded improvements in the organisations culture.

tips for turnaround and inspection success from George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust

The trust was in special measures and had ‘the worst mortality rate in the country’ however they turned it around and are now rated as ‘Good’ by the CQC, here are some of things they suggest for succes:

recognise your issues and push for better – George Eliot had the mantra we are ‘Humble but ambitious’
make sure there are no surprises – know your organisation and challenge what you ‘think’ to be true
know your strengths and celebrate them – staff morale is key
Use your patient forums – they are the first to tell you what’s wrong
implement monthly peer reviews (and continue them post inspection)
carry out bi-annual mock inspections – self assess, invite local trusts and get support from your CCG

Lean about CQCAssure at a briefing event