Show your support for #CAAW
This week (13 to 17 June) is Clinical Audit Awareness Week – a time to promote and celebrate the benefits and impact of clinical audit and quality improvement work in healthcare. Show your support for the week at #CAAW.
To mark #CAAW, we caught up with Helen Way, our clinical effectiveness lead, to find out more about #CAAW and Helen herself.
What exactly is clinical audit?
Clinical audit is a quality improvement process that seeks to improve patient care and outcomes through systematic review of care against explicit criteria and the implementation of change
You’re new to this role Oxleas, where did you work before?
Before I joined the NHS, I worked as a legal secretary in London and then took a career change into retail management with ladies fashion retailer, Hobbs. I joined Medway Community Healthcare in 2009 in their infection control team where I started working with audits.
Why did you choose clinical audit?
Working with the infection control team on their audit programme ignited a passion for audits and quality improvement. I joined the quality team in 2010 as clinical quality co-ordinator, to co-ordinate and monitor the annual clinical audit programme, develop audit tools and support clinicians, design and deliver clinical audit training and to co-ordinate the implementation of NICE guidance.
Why is clinical audit important?
We have to audit to meet mandatory and statutory requirements as a trust. We audit because it has many benefits to us and our patients, such as promoting and enabling best practice, improving patient experience and outcomes, providing evidence that demonstrates where services are clinically and cost effective and provide opportunities for training and education
Where can people find out more?
To find out more about our clinical audit programme and training or to access templates, visit our clinical effectiveness intranet page
The photograph is me with my Bichon Frise, Bella, who loves the clinical audit training and tells me it’s coffee time at 10am every morning!
