• That end-of-life care is planned.
Process
• That there is a reduction in variations in clinical practice
and outcomes. • That the patient experience is improved.
Quality data provides the evidence that services are making improvements to reach the ultimate goal of delivering the care that each and every patient can expect: A quality of care delivered to every patient, every time, regardless of their local hospital or community provider, where they live, or who their GP is.
4.3 An example of local practice in conducting the National Heart Failure Audit Rachel Kindred, Denise Hockey and Lynne Thomas, Aneurin Bevan Health Board, South Wales
Cases are identified monthly by the Information Department based on discharge codes
Q&PS Improvement & Measurement Assistant obtains notes
Heart Failure Specialist Nurse team analyses notes and completes audit pro forma
Q&PS Improvement & Measurement Co-ordinator inputs data to the NICOR database, then exports data for analysis and feedback to Heart Failure clinical team meeting every two months.
Challenges
Left to right: Lynne Thomas (Quality and Patient Safety Improvement and Measurement Assistant), Denise Hockey (Heart Failure Nurse Specialist), Rachel Kindred (Quality and Patient Safety Improvement & Measurement Co-ordinator)
Background Participation in the National Heart Failure Audit began at Nevill Hall Hospital in 2008 with a small patient group, namely those patients referred to the Heart Failure Specialist Nurse team. In 2009 the Clinical Audit Department (now the Quality & Patient Safety Improvement & Measurement Department), became involved with the data input, also using the data for the All Wales 1000 Lives Campaign. The patient group was widened in 2010 to include all those with a coded diagnosis of heart failure on discharge. In 2012 data collection began at Royal Gwent Hospital, the Health Board’s other main acute hospital.
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The biggest challenge has been to achieve collaboration between the three departments (Information, Quality & Patient Safety and the Heart Failure Specialist Nurse team). This has involved regular communication to refine the identification of cases and the obtaining of case notes for the audit. Obtaining case notes has proved time consuming and requires close communication to ensure the notes are available at the right time to be viewed by a busy clinical team, before being removed when required by other departments of the hospital.
Benefits The biggest benefit to participation has been the ability to export and review the data regularly as a team, allowing the comparison of data over time in order to resolve areas of lower compliance.
National Heart Failure Audit April 2011-March 2012
HF Report 2012 Design B.indd 52
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