For any Registered Manager grappling with getting ready for their CQC inspection, audits are a ‘hot potato’ and a must for your healthcare business.
The Audits cover your Fundamental Standards like these:
- Regulation 12 – Safe Care and Treatment
- Regulation 17 – Good Governance
There are some good strong reasons why you should carry out audits:
- They help monitor service safety and provide themes and trends
- They provide assurance to everyone working in the company providing the service
- They can be an effective system for flagging up any problems or issues if utilised correctly
- They encourage reflection and continuous quality improvement
Here are a few examples to give you an idea of what they would look like.
We have developed a number of Audit Templates that cover specific areas which need to be audited to demonstrate CQC compliance ready for your inspection.
The Medicines Management, Complaints and Care Plan Audits are especially important. These areas are often breached.
To give you a taster around the Medicines Management Audit questions to consider include:
- During handover of your support worker(s), are MAR charts checked for gaps?
- How many staff medicines spot checks have you carried out, what were the outcomes and how did you carry them out during Covid-19?
Important to note
Once your organisation decides the time frame or schedule for your audits, ensure that you stick to this. This is important to evidence consistently and transparency. Also be sure that you can clearly evidence your actions and progress.
It is essential that you report on your findings. For example, a bar chart showing as a percentage how many of the MAR charts were fully completed over the last 2 months?
If you are interested in our Audit Templates please contact us for further information at tracey@virtual-administration.com.
We run lots of CQC Webinars which can be booked here.