Raising the standards - RCoA launch new Quality Improvement Compendium
120 global experts create UK’s only compendium of patient-focused anaesthetic quality standards
Wellbeing and environmental sustainability included for the first time
The College has launched the Quality Improvement Compendium’s fourth edition. The ‘recipe book’, as it is colloquially known is the only one of its kind in the UK and has had contributions from over 100 healthcare professionals around the globe. It is used by anaesthetic, intensive care, perioperative care and pain management staff and has provided the basis for many hospital department audits for over 20 years.
Within this fourth edition new sections have been included on wellbeing, environmental sustainability, frailty and prehabilitation, among others. This publication reflects the full breadth of anaesthetic practice, from intensive care, perioperative medicine and pain management, reminding us of the many ways in which anaesthetists influence the quality of care provided to patients.
Professor Ravi Mahajan, President of the Royal College of Anaesthetists said:
“The Quality Improvement Compendium shifts the notion of quality of care by viewing audits as part of an improvement cycle not a one-off event. It is not enough for hospitals to stand still, NHS staff and clinical departments all have something to improve on, everybody can do better.
“Since the last edition eight years ago, medicine has been through many changes which are reflected in a range of new audit and improvement recipes. Patients lie at the heart of this book, not only in advising healthcare workers how to use their existing knowledge to improve patient information and patient experience, but also in the improvement recommendations designed to mobilise new ways of working with our patients to improve the care we provide. Topics such as environmental sustainability and combating fatigue are also vital new content: there are ethical, public and staff expectations that our health and care system be sustainable, our healthcare workers be supported, and our NHS be efficient - patient safety depends on it.
“We hope that by providing audit standards, improvement activities and QI methodology together in the same place, readers will use our Quality Improvement Compendium as an effective action guide to improve care, across the full range of anaesthetic services.
“Over 120 global experts collaborated in developing this fourth edition of the Compendium - each recipe is the product of many hours of research. Their work will help the College stay at the forefront of improving healthcare for the next 20 years.
"Thank you to the compendium editors: Dr Maria Chereshneva, Dr Carolyn Johnston, Dr John R Colvin and Professor Carol J Peden.”
Join our compendium editors for detailed first-hand discussions on the new edition in a dedicated webinar on 24 September 2020.