We work hard to provide the best care we can and aim for continuous improvement.
We do this in a number of ways:
Safety and quality priorities
Each year we prioritise a number of areas that we focus on to improve the safety and quality of our care.
You can read about these in our annual quality accounts.
Service reviews
We run a rolling programme of reviewing our services to make sure they continue to provide excellent care. They are assessed against the criteria set by the Care Quality Commission for safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led care.
Measuring the quality of clinical care
Each year different speciality services undergo clinical audits where we measure the quality of their clinical practice against agreed best practice standards and criteria.
This includes checking we are meeting clinical guidelines and infection control standards, that we are following safety processes before operations, and that patients receive the right information and advice they need. After an audit, teams identify any actions they need to take to improve. You can read about our latest audits in our annual reports.
Ward and service assessments
We run a quality improvement programme called 15 steps where clinical and non-clinical staff visit a ward or service unannounced and assess the quality of care. They talk to patients, carers and staff about their experiences, examine cleanliness, observe interactions between patients and staff, and check records.
The ward and service teams receive immediate feedback and develop an action plan to address any issues identified by the assessment. These assessments are used to both share best practice and to make any improvements needed.
Our quality strategy
Our five year quality strategy provides staff with a clear focus. It aims to ensure that quality of care underpins every decision taken by every member of staff and to provide the safest health and care service to patients.
We actively encourage staff to come up with ideas and make suggestions, and support them to make these a reality and make a difference, no matter how big or small.
Ensuring patients understand their medication
Our ‘keep calm and ask’ campaign encourages patients and their families to ask any questions they may have about medication before they, or their loved ones, leave hospital.
This followed feedback from patients that they are sometimes unclear and confused about new medication they have been given whilst in hospital.
Measuring the success of a service
We take part in a national programme called Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs), where all of our patients who are undergoing a hip or knee replacement are surveyed.
Patients are asked about their health before and after their operation to help measure the success of the operation from the patient’s point of view.
The questionnaires aim to collect information to measure and improve the quality of healthcare services offered by different hospitals across the NHS.