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Special Interest Group

Quality Management in Healthcare

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Latest group activity

  • Angela Rowe posted an update 3 days, 8 hours ago

    I know you mentioned the ISO Standard (BS ISO 7101:2023) Healthcare organisation management – Management systems for quality in healthcare organisations – Requirements in the last few days on here Thomas. I’d be interested to develop an understanding of any healthcare organisations that are implementing the ISO standard please or are thinking…Read more

    • I am working with one large Trust to help design and implement a QMS to this ISO Standard. I’m sure that some others may be but I don’t know which. I do no that several other Trusts are interested in the standard as you can see from comments in this SIG. This week I’ll be posting questions and answers from my last webinar. A number of questions…Read more

    • I am very curious of the adoption of ISO 9001 standards within hospital settings currently, particularly at the ORGANISATION level rather than limited to individual departments or service lines. Having a clear picture helps us examining existing implementations in other UK hospitals, also help identify potential gaps and inform our own approach,…Read more

  • Let’s have a look at ‘complexity’. The NHS don’t have monopoly on complexity; what about space travel, nuclear submarines, power stations, missile systems, AI, IT, MRI scanners, etc. These are all examples of complexity – in specification, design, realisation, operation, and very importantly Quality Management. But guess what? They all have…Read more

  • Other standards used within HNS Trusts also use the Annex SL MIS Framework, standards for things like AI, IT Governance, Environment, etc. Trusts should conduct a survey across all areas to understand the extent they can take advantage of a well designed IMS.

  • PAS 1616, ISO 15189, ISO 9001, and BS ISO 7101 can ALL be implemented with a Integrated Management System (IMS) using the Annex SL Framework. With the right design the following standards can also be included: The General Pharmaceutical Council’s Standards for pharmacy professionals May 2017 and The Royal College of Radiologists’ Standards. Oth…Read more

    • I learnt this week that ISO15189 Quality and Competence in Medical Laboratories is not a classed as a management standard by ISO so doesn’t comply with Annex SL nor are there any plans for it to do so. However, it is based on ISO9001 and ISO17025 which apparently are management systems. All feels a bit odd.

      Nigel

  • I’ve said many times that Quality Improvement (QI) is not the same as Continuous Improvement (CI). I’ll say it again, QI is not the same as CI. Have a look at this: https://aqua.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Embedding-a-Culture-and-System-for-Continuous-Improvement.pdf. ‘Embedding a culture and system for continuous improvement’. The word…Read more

  • The webinar wasn’t up to much anyway so you didn’t miss anything. Anyway here is a bit on the PACA (PDSA) cycle. It’s part of Continuous Improvement (CI) not QI. Not no mention of improvement science or a lengthy report. See: …Read more

    • I found quite a few nuggets of wisdom in your webinar Tom so thank you. I was trying to re watch parts as i particularly enjoyed your definitions of Quality vs Continuous Improvement, this is something i am getting wrong at present However i cannot access the recording to listen again where it is stored – appears to want em to log in to the CQI…Read more

    • People get confused over Quality vs Specification and Quality Improvement vs Continual Improvement. I did try to illustrate the differences during the webinar. I can post on this if needed.

      • please do post on these topics, really interests me. Have read the resources from your webinar Tom but as always leads to new trails of thought so more of your knowledge and experience on these topics would be very welcome

  • Join me for a webinar on Quality & Patient Safety Management on Wednesday lunch time. See: https://www.quality.org/events/2024/quality-management-system-design-healthcare-and-nhs?_gl=1*awuqu1*_up*MQ..*_ga*NDIyOTYwNDA5LjE3Mjg5ODM0OTQ.*_ga_PHZCFXV417*MTcyODk4MzQ5My4xLjAuMTcyODk4MzQ5My4wLjAuMA..

  • Sid Beech posted an update 3 weeks ago

    Join the QMS Coffee Trials Friday 25th Oct 12.30-1.30pm 

    A lovely opportunity to network with like-minded peers who are curious about QMS and its implementation in healthcare. Open to all – the sessions run monthly.

  • Thomas John Rose posted an update 3 weeks ago

    Just a thought:

    What is Process Intelligence?
    Process Intelligence is the practice of gaining insights into an organisation’s operations. It involves obtaining visibility into processes, collecting and analysing relevant data, understanding how these processes function, and using this knowledge to identify areas for improvement. This approach…Read more

  • Would any members of this SIG be interested in a webinar on how to:

    • Identify
    • Document, and
    • Improve

    An NHS process? Please Reply or Like if you are interested.

    • Very much so – been having conversations around identifying our systems and processes lately and has caused quite a few blank faces

    • Hi Tom,

      Personally I’d be interested in what good practice looks like in regards to identifying and designing processes, rather than how to improve them. My sense is that, if we get better at designing processes in the first place, we will have less improvement work required. Having started to learn more about the processes and techniques used…Read more

      • I disagree Jem. If the webinar is supported, and support from members looks to be good so far, I will cover, in detail, all of your points.

      • I’m not sure what you disagree with but if you are covering those points then that would be great 🙂

      • Everything – but in the nicest possible way.

      • Agree with Jem and have similar observation, and the use of language such as “engineering” can be off putting to some and there are lots of human factors and design thinking involved in good process design and a collaborative approach is essential

      • Lets get on with it then. I’ve been talking about it for a long time now. I do know how to do it!

    • Definitely – am always looking to learn and understand more about process improvement

    • 😀 Fair enough. I stand by what I said though. In the NHS we have a huge amount of expertise about how to improve healthcare processes. The biggest challenge that I have seen in my experience is that the processes we are trying to improve are rarely designed (and often not well managed). Processes often have evolved over time, with multiple…Read more

    • I’d be interested in attending, thanks.

    • Yes definitely interested. Currently working on similar in NHS Ayrshire and Arran, scotland

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About this group

There is now a growing interest in Quality Management in healthcare.  This Special Interest Group will help those interested in learning about or implementing a Quality Management System (QMS).

In Quality Management there is a great deal of emphasis on:

  • Documenting how work gets done (the steps that comprise the process).
  • Examining the flow of work between people or workstations.
  • Giving people the knowledge and methods they need to constantly improve that work.

There are a lot of different process improvement methods but almost all of them serve one of two purposes:

  • To eliminate variation in quality and speed (a major source of error).
  • To improve process flow and speed.

The majority of process improvement work should fall into one of those two categories.

This SIG is convened by Tom Rose.

Active members

  • Photo of Alan Gurbutt
  • Photo of Thomas John Rose
  • Photo of Donna Chung
  • Photo of Isabel Ho
  • Photo of Sinead Phelan
  • Photo of Anthony Fulford
  • Photo of John Rasquinha
  • Photo of Maria Dorthea Skov