Safe, high quality care for all –
the importance of accreditation
Fiona Carragher @DepCSOFiona
Deputy Chief Scientific Officer
Apr 2017
The push for Quality
We are what
we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then,
is not an act, but a habit.
Aristotle
“Transparency
about quality has
helped care improve”
NHS Five Year Forward View
The drivers of change in healthcare
Demographics
Scientific Advance
Care &
Quality
Gap
Utilising
technology &
information
New models
of Care
Expectations
Service models
Social, political,
economic,
environmental
Health &
Wellbeing
Gap
Carter
efficiency
review
(2016)
Finance &
Efficiency
Gap
Improving
integration
Multiprofessional
working
The value of accreditation
With accreditation, services can demonstrate that they:
 meet performance standards sustainably &
support continuous improvement
 deliver clinical and administrative practices professionally
 focus on patient safety and high quality of care
 have appropriate resources, facilities and workforces
Accreditation provides:
• Commissioners - independent assurance of quality and safety
• Patients - drives care quality of care for patients,
• Services - delivers efficiency and productivity
Informs commissioning decision-making, secures quality assurance
knowledge & is increasingly uses in service assessment & contracting
Accreditation schemes
ISO 15189
Medical Labs
(Path
& Genetics)
Others
POCT,
Med
Devices
ISAS
Imaging
ACCREDITATION
SCHEMES
CEPSS
IQIPS
Engineering &
Physical Sciences
Physiology
JAG
GI Endoscopy
A 25 year
track record of
NHS experience
in using
accreditation
to assure
standards
and drive
improvement
HOWEVER
- Uptake still
variable
- Much more
scope to
collaborate &
share good
practice
Why isn’t uptake happening faster?
Attitude to & appetite for accreditation
Interest vs influence to make it happen
Engagement
Perceived benefits
Support required for implementation
Driving uptake of accreditation
• A number of leading trusts have
secured board-level support for
accreditation programmes:
― University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB)
and Imperial Healthcare Trust (London) for
comprehensive trust-wide accreditation.
― Cambridge Hospitals for trust-wide IQIPS.
• Key role for Lead Healthcare Scientists
• Major initiatives – eg NHS Genomic
Medicine Centres are driving
accreditation across hospital networks
Crucial for inspection
and patient assurance
Accreditation now forms a cornerstone of the evidence
gathered by the CQC as part of their inspection regime:
“We will look at how we can work more effectively with
our partners by using each other’s information,
such as accreditation schemes”
CQC, Shaping the future 2016-2021: What our strategy means
for the health and adult social care services we regulate
“We believe that… all services need to
meet recognised and independently
assessed standards that ensure provision
is fit for purpose… To give parents of deaf
children the assurances they need about
the quality of provision, all services
should be accredited.”
National Deaf Children’s Society, Lessons from
accredited paediatric audiology services, 2015
Develops culture of
quality and reflection
Productivity/
Sustainability –
STPs & Carter
External
improvement
support
Improves care
standards and
outcomes
Why
accreditation?
Staff morale
Inspection
requirement
Reduces cost to
system & patients of
unwarranted
variation
Commissioning
push – becoming a
contractual
obligation
VISION: All scientific & diagnostic services accredited to support safe, high quality care for all
Providers: encourage all services to achieve accreditation & improve quality
Commissioners: uses accreditation to identify & select high quality services
The push for Quality
Quality is never an accident;
it is always the result of
high intention,
sincere effort,
intelligent direction
and skilful execution;
it represents the wise choice
of many alternatives.
War hero William A Foster
(after John Ruskin)