A A A

Netcare's is committed to delivering the highest quality of service to patients. The approach requires a combination of:

• Instilling a culture of continuous improvement


• Groupwide risk management


• Investment in technology excellence.

Further details of our activities are outlined below.

Assessing and monitoring quality including external accreditation

One of our priority business goals is continually to improve the overall quality of the services we deliver in order to increase patient safety and satisfaction.

Improved methods of working will increases patient-handling capacity and flow, decreasing waiting times and potentially harmful delays in care. The result is a safer, more efficient, cost-effective system that better satisfies patients and healthcare workers.

The five main quality improvement techniques we employ are:

• CNST self assessment


• Controls Assurance self assessment


• Development of an Iintegrated Service and Quality Improvement Action Plan


• Monitoring and review


• Training and education

Furthermore, we employ external advice and are commited to he process of quality accreditation. As a member of the British Quality Foundation, BQF, we aim to provide a visible commitment to improve the quality of patient care, to ensure a safe environment and to reduce risks to patients and staff, while sustaining those standards already in place.

Information management and technology

Our information management and technology (IM&T) solutions comply with these following standards:

• Caldicott Principles and guidelines detailed in the Department of Health publication “Caldicott Guardians Protecting and Using Patient Information (A Manual for Caldicott Guardians) HSC 1999/012”


• NHS Confidentiality Code of Practice (November 2003)


• NHS Information Governance Toolkit


• Completion and submission of the STEP questionnaire


• Primary Care Computer Systems Requirements for Accreditation, RFA99v1.2


• NHS Net Code of Connection 2002 published by the Department of Health as CODECON 2002 as amended or replaced from time to time code of connection


• BS7799-2 security management standard


• BS 15000 (ISO2000) IT service management standard


• All applicable parts of the NHS Data Dictionary


• Version 3 of Clinical Terms (The Read Codes) or SNOMED CT as it is phased in


• HL7 V3, or HL7 V2 or HL72UKA.2 standards


• 128 bit SSL encryption for HS mail services and NHS specification for email client access
• NHS eSMTP messaging specification


• HTTP/1.1 for hypertext transfers


• Firewall conformity with ITSEC E3 or Common Criteria EAL 4


• Web interface conformity to e-GIF policies
.

Finally we have taken steps to move from compliance to certification for both B15000 service delivery and the new ISO 27001 standard that covers BS 7799-2. This is an integral part of a larger project to implement external certification across the business.