Every year they come around: audits. They are important to ensure the quality of care, but often cost a lot of time and effort to complete.
For example, audits use long questionnaires and forms, which are scanned or manually converted to spreadsheets in order to check in an overview whether work is being done as defined in the process descriptions or work instructions.
All in all, completing an audit is not an easy task. There is a lot to keep track of and it is easy to lose sight of the whole.
Our client GGZ Drenthe thought there had to be a different way to do this. That’s why, together with them, The Patient Safety Company built an application to perform audits via our TPSC Cloud Platform. This way everything is conveniently brought together in one place, and notifications are sent automatically! Read on quickly to see how this works.
The methodology of audits
The quality department of GGZ Drenthe schedules audits for each department and activates them in the system. An audit consists of a questionnaire suited to the theme of the audit and the specializations of the department. This questionnaire is divided into chapters, each covering a different sub-theme of the audit.
In each chapter, different standards are tested and performance for each standard can be tracked on a scale. Textual explanations can also be given for each answer. Thus, notations can still be made on the digital form.
Those involved in the audit
When starting the questionnaire, all those involved are entered into the form. This includes not only those present when the audit is completed, but also other stakeholders such as department heads. By entering them in the form, they are automatically kept informed of the progress of the audit.
The report after the audit
After an audit is completed, a report is automatically generated by the system. In it, all chapters are highlighted with scores. Individual questions are also displayed with their scores so that one can look at which point of a topic brings down the score, for example.
In the report, the textual explanations for each answer are visible, so that even later you can find out where certain scores came from. This way you can easily take a more in-depth look afterwards.
The follow-up with Improve
After going through the report, improvement actions can be drawn up based on the outcome of the audit. GGZ Drenthe can manually put these into their Improve application when reviewing an audit, with the origin 'internal audit'.
However, it is also possible to automatically export improvement actions to Improve. In this case, the origin of the improvement action is automatically included as an audit and you can navigate back and forth from Improve to the audit and vice versa.
Analyses using Power BI
Thanks to an integration with Power BI, audit data can be compared across the different departments of the healthcare organization. It is possible to zoom in on different levels, with Power BI ensuring that all visualizations on the worksheet go along with the zoom function.
Reporting with Power BI not only simplifies the identification of pain points, but also makes it easier to monitor performance over time. After all, audits are an annual part of the work and so a standardized form allows progress to be tracked over time.
The benefits of the audit application
By integrating the audit application into the entire TPSC Cloud Platform, everything can be viewed and reviewed in the same place. Not only audits are clearer, but linking with Improve and monitoring results with reports makes the process easier. Thus, the application ensures that the improvement cycle is much better secured.
In addition, the questionnaire can easily be taken along on a tablet when the audit is performed on location. The questionnaire is completed in the cloud and is thus immediately accessible to all stakeholders, there is no need to scan anything and there is a smaller risk of human error.
Interested? Get in touch!
Has this application piqued your interest and would you like to learn more about the capabilities of this and other custom applications from The Patient Safety Company? Then feel free to contact us to discuss the possibilities!
