- Date published
- April 2008
- Pages
- 5
- Download publication [39kb PDF]
This paper sets out the Health Foundation’s response to the Healthcare Commission’s consultation.
Background
The Healthcare Commission carries out annual health checks on behalf of patients to assess whether NHS organisations are meeting government standards on safety and the quality of clinical care. The government has asked the Commission to visit every acute trust to measure compliance with the Hygiene Code.
The Health Foundation’s response
The Health Foundation’s comments focus on the proposed methodology for these visits. Our Safer Patients Initiative can provide valuable lessons about how the Healthcare Commission should undertake these visits.
The response covers four areas:
- the Health Foundation’s Safer Patients Initiative
- the Safer Patients Initiative approach
- how does the Safer Patients Initiative complement compliance with the Hygiene Code?
- what is the most helpful way for the Healthcare Commission to undertake annual visits to trusts?
The Safer Patients Initiative approach
The Safer Patients Initiative, now in its fourth year, is successfully helping 24 hospitals across the UK reduce adverse events and patient deaths. We’ve consulted with some of the participating hospitals to ask how they think compliance with the Hygiene Code could best be assessed.
The initiative uses a set of changes (or frameworks) that identify specific aims and goals in each clinical area. The work is piloted through rapid cycle ‘Plan Do Study Act’ (PDSA) methodology. Staff can measure compliance on a regular basis (as opposed to periodic audit).
The paper sets out a number of areas where the systems and duties required of hospitals participating in the Safer Patients Initiative complement the requirements of the Hygiene Code.
Getting the most out of annual visits
The Health Foundation’s response suggests ways to structure the annual visits to maximise their effectiveness. The Commission could, for example, develop a national proforma detailing its expectations of the process, a standardised structure for each visit and the assessment criteria.
Conclusions
Hospitals participating in the Safer Patients Initiative see the Hygiene Code as a positive tool to improve the safety of patient care. The Health Foundation believes that assessment of compliance with the Code needs to be done in a way that enables staff to use the data collected as a tool for further improvement.
For further information please contact:
Liza Coffin, Public Affairs Adviser
Telephone: 0207 257 8051
Email: Liza Coffin
