학술논문

Outliers from national audits: their analysis and use by the Care Quality Commission in quality assurance and regulation of healthcare services in England.
Document Type
Article
Source
Clinical Medicine. Sep2021, Vol. 21 Issue 5, pe511-e516. 6p.
Subject
*EVALUATION of medical care
*MEDICAL quality control
*AUDITING
*CLINICAL governance
*MEDICAL care
*PATIENTS
*NATIONAL health services
*QUALITY assurance
*PATIENT safety
Language
ISSN
1470-2118
Abstract
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. As part of the intelligence-driven approach to regulation, the CQC works closely with national clinical audit bodies to identify key metrics which reflect quality of care and track the performance of providers against these metrics. Where outliers on national audits are identified that may reflect risks to patients, the CQC encourages the hospital to identify any learning points and implement changes to improve patient care. In this article, we describe the role of national audit outcomes in the regulatory process and how providers can use national audits to inform both quality assurance and quality improvement processes, with two illustrative case studies. We discuss the ongoing challenges with using audit data in the regulatory process and how these could be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]