Working to objectives Annual plan

An essential part of the Governance framework is audit - the quality improvement process which allows the Trust to evaluate performance against standards and implement changes to improve the care we give to our patients.

 

The Trust identifies which guidelines are applicable from the national audit agenda, for example the NICE guidelines and the various National Service Frameworks. Status of audit activity against guidelines can be demonstrated at any time as well as the level of compliance against completed audits.

 

The Essence of Care project has continued focus on improving the patient experience by using benchmarking against other healthcare organisations to improve the quality of fundamental and essential aspects of care.

 

Over the past 18 months, working groups for each of the essence of care benchmarks have been set up and undertaken Trust-wide audits of personal and oral hygiene, continence, self-care, communication, privacy and dignity and food and nutrition. All of the audits have incorporated a combination of staff and patient questionnaires enabling the auditors to capture both sets of views and priorities.