The Royal Marine Hotel in Dublin was the venue for this year’s CHKS Ireland conference. As well as hearing about the latest developments at CHKS from Moyra Amess, Director of Benchmarking, Assurance and Accreditation, delegates also heard from Siobhan O’Halloran, Chief Nursing Officer, Department of Health, Ireland and Eugene Farrell, Head of Information Services, Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Ireland and Dr Peter Lachman, Chief Executive, ISQua.
Siobhan O’Halloran gave a nursing perspective on quality and the impact that changes to the way healthcare is being delivered will have on nursing. Eugene Farrell presented on the role of business intelligence in delivering quality.
Dr Peter Lachman talked to delegates about the role of quality in the future of healthcare. He discussed quality improvement and how greater spending does not always improve outcomes. Instead commissioners and others who are responsible for healthcare delivery should focus on the theory and method for improving quality. His slides resonated with delegates, in particular the quotation: “Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.”
After hearing about the development of the CHKS standards framework and the introduction of outcome measurement to help providers set goals and measure performance by Jackie Rayner, delegates were taken through a case study of VHI SwiftCare.
Michelle Le Brun, Medical Director, VHI SwiftCare explained how the accreditation process has benefitted the organisation. They explained the importance of teamwork and how this has helped on its quality improvement journey.
If you would like to find​ out more about how accreditation has benefitted organisations in Ireland please email info@chks.co.uk.
