Patient safety is of utmost importance in healthcare, and providers make every effort to deliver top-notch care while minimising risks to patients. To accomplish this, it is crucial to have efficient and effective assurance and improvement systems in place.

Triangulation is a powerful method that can greatly improve patient safety assurance. It involves analysing and combining multiple data sources to understand the situation thoroughly.

What’s needed for healthcare providers is a single digital system that can house all the relevant data, from LFPSE incidents, risks, CQC self-assessments, NICE guidance, CAS alerts, Policy, Audits, and improvement actions and present one triangulated version of the truth for an accurate, up-to-date view from which to learn and improve.

Understanding Patient Safety Incidents

Patient safety incidents are events that were not intended and do or could lead to harm to the patient. Healthcare organisations use systems like NHS England's Learn from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) and the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) to report and learn from these incidents to reduce future instances.

Healthcare providers must contractually have an effective and efficient digital incident reporting system in place that allows them to quickly and easily report these patient safety incidents to NHS England and immediately update the NHS England LFPSE database for faster national identification of issues, learning and improvement.

These systems assist in identifying and analysing incidents, enabling the implementation of corrective measures and preventative strategies.

The Role of Audits in Ensuring Quality

Auditing is crucial in ensuring that healthcare organisations provide quality care. It involves a systematic assessment of their procedures, practices and processes.

Conducting audits can pinpoint areas that need improvement, evaluate adherence to standards and protocols, and detect any safety hazards that may exist.

By integrating audit findings into their assurance systems, organisations can take proactive measures to address safety concerns and enhance the quality of patient care.

CQC Quality Information

As the Care Quality Commission (CQC) is an independent regulatory body that oversees UK health and social care services, monitoring, inspecting and rating healthcare providers to ensure that they provide high-quality care, providers need to make sure that they have an accurate and up-to-date view of performance against regulations to create improvement plans from.

CQC quality information provides valuable insights into the quality of services, safety standards, and patient experiences. By leveraging this information, healthcare organisations can identify areas for improvement and align their efforts with regulatory expectations.

Triangulation of Patient Safety Incidents, Audits, and CQC Quality Information

Triangulation involves gathering data from various sources to understand a situation comprehensively. In patient safety, combining patient safety incidents, audits, and CQC quality information can offer a holistic view of safety and quality performance. With this, users can drill down into the data for a more detailed overview and pinpoint where the issues lie to make quick, corrective decisions based on more facts.

Healthcare organisations can improve patient safety and overall care quality by integrating various data sources to identify patterns, uncover root causes, and develop targeted interventions. This approach strengthens the assurance system for patient safety.

InPhase Oversight: Enhancing Patient Safety Assurance

InPhase Oversight is a powerful suite of tools designed to support patient safety assurance and improvement. It incorporates patient safety incidents into a wider triangulation of information, enabling organisations to identify trends, track progress, and implement evidence-based interventions.

The Oversight suite allows healthcare providers to streamline processes, save time, and achieve improved outcomes. It is no wonder that 50% of NHS Trusts live with and reporting to the LFPSE system at the time of writing are InPhase users.

Mayflower Medical Group: Success with InPhase Oversight

Mayflower Medical Group deployed InPhase Oversight and witnessed a remarkable transformation. They improved their CQC rating from Inadequate to Good within just a few months.

For an in-depth exploration of how Oversight supported the incredible work of the Mayflower Medical Group team, read their case study here.

Triangulate patient safety incidents, audits and CQC quality information for better assurance and improvement

To better understand how triangulation of patient safety incidents, audits, and CQC quality information can revolutionise patient safety assurance, we hosted an exclusive web conference on 27th July 2023.

This session covered how InPhase Oversight empowers healthcare organisations to implement effective triangulation strategies and drive continuous safety and quality improvement. If you missed this exclusive opportunity to witness the capabilities of Incident Oversight from InPhase and discover why organisations are achieving remarkable results, the recording is now available.

Take a significant step towards transforming patient safety and quality in your organisation and request access to watch the recording of the session, here.

Robert Hobbs

Chief Executive Officer

InPhase’s Chief Executive and Founder, Robert has been the visionary leading InPhase to be one of the UK's leading providers of management, governance and assurance solutions, and helping organisations align their actions and goals more easily and efficiently with InPhase's suite of integrated apps.