Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust sees clinical audit and other quality improvement initiatives as a cornerstone of its arrangements for developing and maintaining high quality patient-centred services. When carried out in accordance with best practice standards, clinical audit can lead to improvements in the quality of care and patient outcomes, as well as providing assurance of compliance with clinical standards.
Each year, Oxleas agrees an annual programme of quality improvement and clinical audit activity that is implemented across the financial year. This will be made up of a compilation of projects that meet's the Trust corporate requirements for assurance which include the following key areas:
The ratification and implementation of the annual programme of quality & clinical audit activity is overseen by the Medical Director and the Trust Clinical Effectiveness Group (CEG). The CEG is also responsible for reviewing the findings and agreed actions resulting from all trust wide clinical audits.
In 2013 Oxleas participated in the second round of the National Audit of Schizophrenia. This is a national audit comparing practice against the NICE guideline for Schizophrenia (CG82, 2009) and examines care in the following areas:
Oxleas audited practice for 100 random cases. In addition 56 service users and 13 carers completed a postal survey about Oxleas care, treatment and support.
The results were published in October 2014 and were reviewed by the Trust CEG in addition to other local and specialist groups. Oxleas has developed an action plan to improve the quality of care we provide the services, carers and families, which can be viewed below in related information.
To find out more about quality in Oxleas please email oxl-tr.quality@nhs.net
or telephone: 01322 625 700 extension 5759.