Preparing for EQA from the inside

1
Preparing for EQA from the inside

• Saïd Business School, Oxford University
• 2nd April 2008
• Val Sibson
• Tina Clark

2
The view from inside

• The inside as
• Regional Quality Assurance Manager
• Programme manager
• Service manager

3
Context

• PCT based service within Provider Unit
• Covers two PCTs
• East Lancashire Teaching PCT - lead
• Blackburn with Darwen Teaching PCT
• 25,000 potential service users
• Commissioned by Primary Care
• Links to public health
• One local Acute Trust treatment centre

4
Delivery model

• Single centre for
• administration and grading
• PCT employed screeners
• 1st disease grading
• PCT Screener/graders
• 2nd disease grading
• Ophthalmology Middle Grades
• Arbitration and referral grading
• Ophthalmology Consultants
• Use mobile and fixed sites

5
What an EQA visit is

• New, scary and hard work
• An opportunity
• About what is working well as well as what has
  the potential to go wrong
• Evolving, learning and facilitative
• A two-stage process
• To help programmes meet national standards

6
EQA Process

• One of the first programmes to undergo EQA
• New to all collective learning
• Fear of the unknown
• It IS stressful
• Involves much work and co-ordination for PMs

7
What do you need to do

• Take a handout
• Make practical arrangements with the benefit of
  local knowledge
• Provide information
• Be open and make full use of the familiarisation
  visit

8
Familiarisation visit

• For RQAMs to understand local context
• For programmes to take a step back and jointly
  assess the strengths and weaknesses of their own
  programme
• A chance to develop secure, collaborative plans
  to address areas where improvements could be made

9
Familiarisation visit

• Raised awareness of strengths weaknesses
• Allowed us to undertake structured correction
  work
• Encouraged collaboration between key stakeholders

10
Full visit

• More formal
• Includes senior managers and clinicians with the
  authority to implement recommendations
• Not the end of the process
• A published report will make recommendations with
  allocated actions and defined timescales

11
Key points

• Openness cannot propose solutions if issues
  unknown
• Opportunity to unstick log jams
• Allows structured correction work
• EQA recommendations carry weight!
• Can assist in getting to where you need to be....

12
Thank you