Accreditation in the NHS

1
Accreditation in the NHS

• Sharon Dobbins, CDTV SHA
• David Peacock, NTW SHA

2
Accreditation of Library and Information Services
in the Health Sector A Checklist to Support
Assessment 2nd edition Compiled by Chris
Fowler and Val Trinder October 2002
3
The purpose of accreditation

• Tool for the SHA to assess how well services are
  managed provided
• Informs SHA strategy development
• Mechanism to enable stakeholders to assess
  quality of service and value for money
• Checklist can also be used as self assessment /
  quality management tool to monitor progress
  both for parent organisation or library manager
• To inform other assessment agencies, e.g. CHI
• Identifies good practice which can be shared

4
Background and context

• Importance of quality assurance in the health
  sector
• Commission for Health Improvement, Improving
  Working Lives etc
• 1997 first edition

5

6
Background and context

• Importance of quality assurance in the health
  sector
• Commission for Health Improvement, Improving
  Working Lives etc
• 1997 first edition
• 2002 second revision
• Shorter
• Less prescriptive, recognising variety in service
  provision
• Reflects developments in information provision

7
The process

• Three year process
• Preparation checklist and evidence
• Assessment day
• Panel as objective as possible
• Process
• Report
• Review

8
The checklist

• Divided into sections and sub-sections
• Library philosophy and management
• Resources
• Stock and services
• Measurement criteria
• Must have criteria
• Graded criteria (0 not met, 1 further
  development still required, 2 excellent)

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Examples of criteria

• MUST HAVE - The parent organisation has a
  formally approved library or knowledge strategy
  which is annually reviewed
• - eg goes to the Board
• - demonstrating organisational ownership of the
  service
• GRADED - There is a quality management programme
  in place, which includes setting, reviewing and
  revising service delivery standards and data
  collection and analysis
• eg a complete process - not just collecting
  statistics
• demonstrating that the service is proactively
  managed, assessed and evaluated

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How Accreditation is awarded

• Basic all the essential (must have) criteria
  are met
• Stage One Standard accreditation all the
  essential criteria are met but the service has
  not received excellent grading on any criteria
• Stage Two Accreditation with some areas of
  excellence all the essential criteria are met
  and between 40 80 of the other criteria are
  graded as excellent
• Stage Three Accreditation with significant
  evidence of excellence innovation all the
  essential criteria are met and 80 of the other
  criteria are graded as excellent

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What is achieved?

• Encourages good practice
• Encourages development towards improved services
• Prevents stagnation
• Prevents bad practice going undetected
• Supports quality improvement processes
• Informs strategic planning at all levels
• Better patient care

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Examples of benefits

• Changes in management structures
• Positive changes to funding arrangements
• New staff
• Development of strategies with formal mechanism
  for Trust approval
• Improvements to performance management, activity
  monitoring and data collection
• Improvements to the physical sign-posting to the
  library from elsewhere in the Trust

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The future

• 2nd edition with revised guidelines 2005
• Major revision commencing in 2006
• Ongoing work with the UK Accreditation Forum
• Ongoing assessor training