6811 Accreditation of clinical services

Accreditation of clinical services

Background

HQIP is an agency focused on a variety of related methods of quality improvement in health and social care - key amongst these is the accreditation of clinical services.

In 2009 the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges asked HQIP to lead a piece of work on its behalf, to prepare a paper about models of professionally led clinical service accreditation, arising from discussions held between the Academy and Sir Bruce Keogh. HQIP created a model of how the disparate clinical accreditation schemes (typically run by Royal Colleges) could be aligned under a single accredited system in the form of a Core Model for Clinical Service Accreditation. This would mean that anyone seeing the mark of accreditation could take a view of what it meant and how valid this was in terms of assurance it provided.  

The National Quality Board, although approving and recommending the model, also recommended that further consultation be undertaken about the proposals, to include consideration of the practical implications of the development of a core model e.g. the mechanisms and systems to support accreditation and matters of alignment with pre existing or developing schemes.

After recent discussions with several colleges, HQIP believe the time is now right to renew this work.

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Consultation April 2012

HQIP recently hosted a meeting working with the Royal College of Psychiatrists, of representatives from the colleges of medicine, nursing, allied health and others to discuss how we might look to take this work forward.  HQIP's Chief Executive Robin Burgess reflects on this consultation in his recent blog entry about the merits of harmonising accreditation schemes.

There was also opportunity to hear about the best research into effectiveness in accreditation and best practice internationally. This saw experts   Dr David Greenfield from the University New South Wales and also Dr Charles Shaw present to the group. Please see below for a copy of the presentation slides, which we link to here with kind permission of the authors:

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Ongoing work in 2012

Overall, it was clear that much remains to be done and that a collective approach is both welcome and supported. It was agreed that HQIP, working closely with the Academy and the other disciplines, would take a lead in engaging with regulators, commissioners and the Department to cement accreditation's place in their thinking as the vital tool it is in driving improvement.

If anyone not present at this meeting would like to be involved in this work, or would like to find out more, please contact Eve Riley, our Development Officer on accreditation at eve.riley@hqip.org.uk.

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Related links:

April 2012: International Society for Quality in Healthcare: inaugural accreditation debate continues:

Debate on evidence for the effectiveness of accreditation: 'There really is no evidence that accreditation has improved the quality of care provided in hospitals or patient safety; in fact, the number of adverse events is increasing'

ISQUA's inaugural Accreditation Debate moderated by John Helfrick remains live.  Click the following link to read the opening statements by Helen Crisp and Jeffrey Braithwaite who defend the motion and Paul vanOstenberg and BK Rana who oppose the motion. Throw your comments into the mix and vote for the most persuasive argument!  Your participation will ensure a lively and stimulating debate.

http://www.isquaknowledge.org/communities/accreditation/debate1/opening-statements/

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