Now more than ever, Rachel Linfoot, as a Dental Practice Manager, recognises the need for a high-quality compliance system. A management system that allows her to keep up-to-date with the ever-changing Coronavirus guidance, and most importantly keep her staff and patients safe.
Last week, Rachel shared with us how to manage her team’s access in the system. Today, Rachel is going to talk to us about the Mock Inspections offered by the system and how useful they are.
Mock Inspections and Patient and Staff Surveys
This week I am delving further into the QCS system to see what else it can offer me – in particular, the mock inspection toolkit and the patient and staff questionnaires.
Mock inspections are something QCS offer to help prepare practices for CQC inspections, they provide invaluable support when the CQC announce they are arriving in two weeks!
As Practice Managers, we have to be extremely organised throughout the year to make sure we are reaching the care and safety standards required, but however organised you are, the questions start to swirl round your mind – have you missed anything, do you have all the correct policies, what will the inspectors look at, how will the team perform on the day?
Let’s face it, nobody looks forward to a CQC inspection, but the good news is QCS provide all the information you need to help you pass your inspection with flying colours!
The mock inspections are really easy to use, they are split into the five key lines of inquiry – Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsible and Well-Led. Each section offers advice and tips on what to expect and how to prepare for your inspection.
There are three forms attached to each section:
- Evidence Summary
- Evidence Checklist
- Action Plan
This is extremely useful as you can go through each item required methodically and ensure that everything is in place to impress your inspector.
For example, in the safe section, the evidence checklist includes things like the following:
- Are all staff trained in Level 2 Safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults? Can you evidence that they have taken a course in the past twelve months?
- Do you have service records available for inspection for your autoclaves? Have they been inspected within the last 14 months?
- Do you have completed checklists for all the surgeries for the past two years? Can you provide evidence to prove you have followed up and actioned any areas of concern?
- Do you have all your audits ready to be inspected?
- Have risk assessments been completed for the correct things? Have you acted on any areas of concern? Can you evidence it?
- Is your COSHH file up to date?
- Have all your legionella checks been recorded?
The mock inspections are great if you have an inspection coming up, but QCS recommend that you regularly perform a mock inspection of your practice to make sure your practice is running to the best of its ability to be able to provide the best care to your patients, and a safe, organised workplace for your team.
QCS also provides patient and staff feedback forms.
It is really important to gain feedback on how your service can be improved and information on what you are doing really well so you can provide feedback to your team. It is recommended that patients fill in questionnaires after their appointments, they may fill them in anonymously if they wish and then each month the forms should be discussed at practice meetings.
The staff feedback forms that QCS provide are also extremely useful to gauge how staff feel at work, see what makes them happy and highlight any areas of concern that could be improved on.
To make full use of the QCS system make sure you use the mock inspections and feedback questionnaires regularly, they will save you a lot of time and make you feel confident you are ready when the call comes!
