WORKSHOP 1: Ensuring Quality and Safety in Healthcare: Inspection and Measuring Tools Used During Inspections by OHSC

Description/Overview: The National Health Amendment Act was introduced in 2013 which paved the way for all health establishments to be inspected to ensure safe and quality care to all South Africans. Consequently the norms and standards regulations have been written which will soon be promulgated. In the interim mock inspections have been conducted in public health establishments during which inspection tools and measuring tools were tested. During this workshop participants will be able to engage in the discussions in refining these tools. Inspection tools have been designed to test a process whereby Inspection teams use their professional judgment, supported by objective measures and clinical evidence, to assess the quality of services against seven domains which include: 1. PATIENT RIGHTS: Dignity of users, Information for users, Systems of referral, Access to care, User experience 2. CLINICAL GOVERNANCE/PATIENT SAFETY/CLINICAL CARE: User health records, Clinical management of national priority health conditions, Clinical leadership and clinical risk, Prevention and control of infections 3. CLINICAL SUPPORT SERVICES: Medicines and medical supplies, Diagnostic and blood services, Therapeutic support services, Health technology, Mortuary services 4. HEALTH PROMOTION AND DISEASE PREVENTION: Outreach services, Health promotion and disease prevention, outbreaks, health emergencies and disaster preparedness, Environmental controls 5. LEADERSHIP AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: Oversight, leadership and accountability, Strategic and risk management 6. OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT: Human resources management and well-being Financial management, Supply chain and asset management, Transport safety management, Information management, Health records storage and retrieval 7 FACILITY INFRASTRUCTURE: Maintenance of buildings and grounds, Building engineering services, Safe and secure environment, Hygiene and cleanliness General waste management, Linen services, Food services. Key questions: are these safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?. The workshop will further include a risk rating to help the delegates compare services and to highlight where care is good or outstanding and expose where care is inadequate or requires improvement. It is important to emphasise that the inspectors from the OHSC are looking for what is good as well as what is not good. Auditing of compliance is based on evidence found in the Health Establishment. The inspectors apply different assessment methods to collect this evidence such as review of documents or patient files, interviews, observation. The evidence is compiled into a set of questionnaires and checklists for different functional areas of the Health Establishment.