a03 h&s

A03- How quality assurance is promoted by services:

Quality assurance mechanisms within the health care sector are aimed at settling patients in care environments, examples of this can be in the hospital or the NHS.  Within the Health and Social care settings there are services in place which are designed to monitor and enforce clear standard of care on a national level. These are known as quality assurance mechanisms. And these aim to ensure that services are more friendly and safer for the patients. These also help to make services more active and therefore ensure that all health care setting work within the standards of care which are designed by the national institute of clinical service. Also standards o0f care are set out through the NSF’s (National service Frameworks.) Here are some examples of some quality assurance mechanisms:

-PPI forums,

-NHS charter,

-Patient complaint service,

-Patient’s choice initiative,

-Annual Health checks,

-Patient surveys,

-Registration and inspection procedures,

-Staff training.

Patient complaint service:

Since the quality assurance mechanisms, the NHS has run a simple complaint process. (http://www.nhs.uk/choiceintheNHS/Rightsandpledges/complaints/pages/NHScomplaints.aspx.) This service provides support for patients and their families and carers and also confidential advice to the patients. For Sabrina this is good as her son will be able to discuss issues that he has and is worried about Sabrina in confidence and then get the advice on the situation and be able to be content with his mother’s wellbeing and health. This service also provides people with explanations on how a victim can go and make a complaint, this will then help Sabrina as it will empower her to know what help is available and it will be confidential if she decides to use it, she will also be reassured as she will know that her complaint is being dealt with professionally.

This service also provides information on the NHS. This meaning they can receive information on heath related matters, and making the patients aware of what to expect and their rights. This will give Sabrina more information on her hip replacement.

PPI forums:

These were set up in 2003 and every National Health Service trust has one of these. They are made up from members of the patients and also the community. The members that make up the statuary body are all volunteers so this makes the service cheaper to run. All members were appointed by the Commission for patient and public involvement in Health (CPPIH.) They meet at several points throughout the year to discuss different aspects of the NHS that they feel needs to be improved.

These forums are essential to the monitoring of the PPI. These are responsible for seeking the views of the patients that have recently received service that are provided by the NHS. They also seek reviews for services that have been recently arranged for people via the NHS trust to ensure that outside services are maintaining a good quality standard. At certain points where the NHs services are delivered they have the right to inspect them, and this is where they analyse how the health and safety procedures are and if they are put in place correctly and also used correctly. They must also check to see that the premises fist into the equal opportunities act by making sure that wheel chair users are able to get access into the premises easily. After these meeting they are able to arrange reports to give their local trust recommendations for improvement which are based upon experiences that have happened before with the patients and also the carers.

Patient’s choice initiative:

This allows people to make a change and be involved within their own care, its main aim is to give patients a choice. This gives patients certain options that make it easier for them, it is beneficial to patients as they can be treated sooner improving the standard of health care which they are receiving. An example of this is giving the patient the option of going to a hospital a bit further away if it has a shorter waiting list, meaning that they get the care that they need quicker and this will help them be able to recover quicker. It also gives them the choice of hospital that they want to have their surgery or treatment at to be treated at their own convenience. Patients being allowed to choose where they are being treated was put into practice in April 2008, from then legislation meant that every patient with an English G.P could have the right to choose where they are treated following referral from their consultant. When a survey was completed by the patient’s choice imitative it was found that patients would rather choose where they were treated and their choices were mainly influenced by these factors: Accessibility, cleanliness, waiting times, Quality of care that is delivered and reputation of the facility.

NHS Charter:

The NHS charter was introduced in 2001, and replaced the former patient’s charter. It was an introductory guide for people about the NHS, it was written to give patients a clear indication of what to expect from the NHS. This also includes information on how the service user can seek redress if they feel that their need a are not being met to the standard that they should be receiving. Within this are many features that explain the rights that the patient has and the standard of care that they are entitled to. It also included improvements that they plan on making to the NHS and the changes that are occurring within the company so they know that improvement are being made on their behalf. This helps the customer create a comparison to the standard of care that they have received compared to the standard of care that they should be receiving and are entitled to.

Annual Health checks:

There are 2 key points that need to be met when establishments are being checked and assessed. These checks are compulsory and are used throughout England. The first question being whether the NHS trusts are getting basic rights and the second question is whether the trust is making or sustaining progress. For these questions to be answered the healthcare commission which is responsible for the annual health checks assesses the performance of each health care trust against a range of different standards and targets which are founded by the government. After this assessment they are able to give a score to the service, one on quality of the service and one score on their use of resources. The scroes that they can get are either:

Excellent,

Good,

Fair,

Weak.

Staff training:

Staff training is always ongoing throughout the NHS and it is always changing and improving. This means that employees are always going on retraining courses so that they are always up to date with current legislations or practises that may be already in place or have just been put into place in order to guarantee that patients are given the best acre that the NHs can provide to them.

Research methods:

Primary research methods:

Questionnaires:

Positives:

-Questionnaires can be based around a specific subject in order to get specific information.

-They can be confidential so people do not feel like they cannot tell the truth about their opinion.

-Tick boxes can be used on questionnaires in order for them to be filled out quickly and easily.

-Questionnaires are kept up to date.

Negatives:

-They can cost a lot to print out and produce depending on how many you want to give out to be completed.

-False data can be collected if the question is misunderstood by the person filling out the questionnaire.

-If the questionnaire requires answers with a lot of content people may not have time to complete the questionnaire.

-Depending on who completes the questionnaire could depend on the feedback you get, for example it could be biased.

-They can be time consuming to make, hand out and collect the data back in.

Interviews:

Positives:

-It gives the interview a chance to clarify, whether this be on a question or a response form the person answering the question so confusion is avoided.

-They are useful to obtain large amounts of information.

-It is easier to observe the persons feelings as they can see their body language and facial expressions.

-Interviews can be made to be centred on a specific topic. 

Negatives:

-The feedback can be biased depending on who they are interviewed with.

-The Hawthorne effect could take place as if people know they are being asked questions on a certain area they may act and answer differently due to the interviewer.

-Interviewees can feel intimidated on giving their own opinion so therefore answer the question not in their own opinion which means the feedback is not accurate.

-Interviews can be time consuming as they have to be set up and the questions have to be pre-written, planned and thought about.

-Interviews can be done very quickly therefore it is difficult for the interviewer to keep up with the responses that they are getting and may miss key points when trying to take notes on the answers that they are getting.

-Can be hard to find a time that suits the interviewer and interviewee.