Clinical Fellow joins HQIP to optimise data use for CQC inspections

Published: 08 Sep 2015

HQIP and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) are working collaboratively on a new project aiming to increase utility of national clinical audit (NCA) data to drive quality improvement in health care via channels such as CQC hospital inspections.

To help scope and research this work, a clinical fellow has joined HQIP and will undertake this project in collaboration with clinical fellows seconded to CQC from the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management (FMLM).

Sidhartha Sinha (Sid), a specialist registrar in general and vascular surgery at the London Deanery, will work full-time at HQIP on the project until April 2016, reporting to HQIP medical director Professor Danny Keenan.

Central to the project is maximising accessibility and improving presentational format of NCA data to aid in CQC inspections of acute hospitals and mental health trusts. It is envisaged that such increased accessibility would also be of benefit to participating Trusts and could aid specific quality improvement measures through easier review of and reflection on their own audit results.

The scope of the project will be further defined by a steering group comprised of representatives from HQIP, CQC, NCA providers, NAGCAE and patient participation groups. Key metrics will be rationalised by clinical and management leadership from audit providers and stakeholders from the NCA community will be actively engaged regarding the proposals.

Updates will be provided periodically throughout the year and a final report produced detailing the results of the project in April 2016.

In practical terms, the ultimate aim is to have a systematically and transparently-populated data dashboard at Trust level available by the end of the project. It is envisaged this dashboard would maintain a degree of generic applicability to enable changing data feeds to be accommodated (such as the commissioning of new NCAs and contemporaneous interest in different metrics) and for the dashboard to be expanded to other types of healthcare providers in the future.

For those wishing to find out more, Sid can be contacted via [email protected] or 020 7997 7357.