Governance of Quality & Safety at CUH
Governing for quality and safety means having the necessary structures, processes and oversight in place to ensure the delivery of services that are safe and provide excellent quality of care. Central to this is having a well governed Board/Management Team in place and providing supporting policies and incentives for improvement. There should also be defined structures for quality and safety and the monitoring of services through intelligent use of information. In support of these goals CUH has developed a model for Corporate and Clinical Governance outlined below.
CUH Clinical and Corporate Governance Structure
Over the past 5 years CUH has been engaged in a programme to redesign the Hospital committee structures and processes in order to prioritise quality & safety and to increase transparency and accountability for the delivery of safe high quality services to patients. In support of this management structure and in recognition of the importance of quality and safety, the EMB has prioritised investment in the clinical governance department in the Hospital and in the management systems needed to assure it of the quality of services provided.
In this regard the establishment of an Executive Quality and Safety Committee with broad professional representation reporting through the chairman to the EMB has been particularly important in providing oversight of quality and safety in the Hospital. It’s views and recommendations have been particularly important in informing decision making on the prioritisation of resources allocation and the setting of priorities. The on-going implementation of the very many regulatory requirements for the Hospital is provided through a range of Hospital Committees on which sit multi-disciplinary staff with appropriate expertise.
Balanced Scorecard
The HSE recognises that continually strengthening accountability and good governance within the HSE is of critical importance. The Accountability Framework introduced in 2015 sets out the means by which the Acute Hospital Division (to include CUH Group) will be held to account for performance in relation to quality and safety of services, financial resources, access to services and effective management of their overall workforce. As part of the accountability framework the performance of the Hospital is incorporated into a Balanced Scorecard which reflects the balance that needs to be achieved between apparently competing requirements such as financial performance and minimising waiting lists. The four dimensions used for the Balanced Scorecard are outlined below.
Balance Scorecard
Within these dimensions there are a range of metrics that are monitored to ensure transparency and accountability and which form a critical part of the overall governance of the Hospital. The Balance Scorecard has been used as a reporting tool to the Executive Management Board and to the SSW Group and it will be further developed in 2016.