We’re delighted to announce that Oxford Medical have been awarded the Customer Service Excellence hallmark from the UK Government Cabinet Office.
You may, or may not, be familiar with Customer Service Excellence Standard accreditation. When it first came to our attention, we were initially attracted by the authenticity and credibility provided by genuine independent assessment. Then, on further investigation, we realised that the framework and assessment process could also provide us with a structured approach to consider our ways of working. Taking an honest look at ourselves, combined with input from our assessor has acted as a catalyst for new ideas, informing our strategy and actions for improvement. So, it’s more than just a badge.
Audit process
We chose an approach that was pretty much in line with the classic clinical audit cycle which can be applied to any quality improvement initiative.
- The first step for audit is to identify a recognisable standard. Rather than just floating along in your own bubble, you need to seek out a relevant standard or framework. A standard can take many forms. It could, for example, be a recommendation from NICE, guidance from a Royal College or a goal defined within your own organisation. In our case, we used the set of 57 defined elements which constitute the Customer Service Excellence Standard.
- The next step is to measure your performance by collecting relevant “evidence”. Measurements can be figures – it’s often easier when they are – but there may be other valid forms of evidence. It could a policy document, the record of a specific event, patient feedback or description of common team behaviour. In short, it can be anything that helps you to accurately describe the current reality.
- After this comes analysis of the evidence in comparison to the standard. Are you meeting, exceeding or falling short of the standard? Why? And what are the implications?
- Once you’ve answered those questions, it’s time to initiate change.
It’s tempting to stop there. But the difference between a process and a cycle is that the latter is ongoing. So, once you’ve initiated change, you need to make sure it’s embedded and actually making things better. Taking steps to improve one thing can often have unexpected impacts. There can be surprising knock on benefits, which are always good to recognise. However, “improvement” in one place can easily create a new problem elsewhere. So, it often makes sense to pay attention to a suite of standards, monitoring performance in a variety of ways, capitalising on benefits and addressing new shortfalls.
Independent, external assessment
Even when we follow good audit practices, human nature, familiarity or even lack of awareness of possibilities can mean we often have blind spots to what is really going on around us. This is where external assessment can have a major impact. Being open to the scrutiny of a suitably experienced independent auditor and listening to their feedback can be very revealing. Care Quality Commission inspections, appraisal and ARCP meetings all fall into this category.
There’s no doubt that the auditor’s attitude can have a major impact. In a ideal world, they should provide supportive, constructive critique, rather than taking the “Gotcha!” approach. But the attitude of the team is another factor in determining if there are true benefits from an external assessment. Being overly defensive, or resistant to either hearing facts or comparison to others are major obstacles to accepting reality – an essential step in achieving improvement.
Thankfully, working with Assessment Services was a very positive experience. By engaging with our assessor and listening carefully to his observations, we’ve identified a number of initiatives for making progress. In addition, we’ve also heightened our awareness of our abilities and the things we do well. This is a vital part of any audit process, as the solutions to our challenges often lie within our strengths.
So, now we have to get on with putting our ideas into action, pay attention to the results and make sure we get ourselves ready for another successful assessment process next year.
Stephen McGuire – Managing Director
