One of the most important aims of our organisation is to ensure that the public and most importantly the patients we are responsible for receive the highest standards of clinical care, all the time and with the utmost of professionalism and governance.
It is important that the public, our clients and our patients have access to a variety of information to inform them about our services and about the way we conduct our business. As you can see we have concentrated extensively on preparing, implementing and monitoring a wide range of policies and procedures to ensure those high standards and you can look at these on this page.
HOW ARE WE PERFORMING
We regularly undertake internal audit to see how we are performing as well as being subject to audit from external organisations such as the Care Quality Commission (CQC)
Our philosophy is to be open and transparent with all we do.
There is simply no point in ‘pretending’ to be good and claiming to ‘meet all the guidelines’. We work hard to ensure that our standards are maintained at all times, and if we fall short of this we need to know quickly so we can rectify it.
OUR VALUES AND GOVERNANCE
Our Aims, Values & Behaviours
One of the key and foremost operating principles of EDMS is to have a robust, consultant advised, effective clinical governance framework in place. EDMS employs doctors, paramedics and nurses with extensive experience and qualifications in their field and the role of clinical governance is to ensure that the care we deliver is safe, effective, evidence based, risk assessed and up to date. We also ensure that our system enables us to review cases, learn from mistakes to improve practice, learn from others, integrate team members to improve safety and to incorporate an effective learning and education pathway for all staff.
In short, clinical governance is about making sure we are acting decently, honestly, safely, legally and effectively and in an open and trustworthy way.
What Are the Components and Structure of our Clinical Governance System?
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That there is a designated Clinical Governance group, led by senior consultants who are specialists in emergency medicine, anaesthesia, critical and prehospital care. The group meets 4 times a year with a structured agenda and oversees all clinical activity
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That EDMS has an audited system of risk assessment, equipment and medicine management, training, case reviews, complaints, clinical and other incident reports and clinical quality and effectiveness.
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That EDMS has clear, evidence based clinical guidelines and policies
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That there is a robust system of ensuring every clinician is adequately trained and assessed to perform his or her role
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That our doctors, paramedics and nurses are of a senior enough level to work without direct supervision and are able to make appropriate clinical judgements and provide the highest level of care possible
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That our staff always have access to a senior doctor and consultant that they can contact to seek further advice regarding patient management
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That our organisation embraces clinical safety, efficacy, transparency and robustness as part of its overall aim. Our philosophy is that clinical governance is at the heart of what we do for…
How Do we Ensure Quality Care?
EDMS constantly review all deployments we cover and audits every patient report form. We structure our quality by having the following mechanisms in place:
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Regular monthly short and longitudinal audits
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Planned audits (I.e. Complaints, compliments, client reviews, review of PRF’s for major cases
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Random audits (I.e. Hand-washing, equipment and medicine checks, knowledge of procedures etc)
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In depth review of all deaths and disability (“D&D”)
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Seeking feedback from clients, patients and service users
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Seeking feedback from other organisations and sharing best practice information
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Seeking feedback from our staff
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Having a review programme for all of our policies and guidelines
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Having a clinical governance group that meets regularly and advises on all aspects of clinical care
Clinical Practice
The fundamental underlying principle of clinical governance is the delivery of high quality, evidence based, safe and effective care under a proper and robust supervised framework led by suitably senior medical staff.
It is no longer acceptable to provide specialist care services that have no way of reviewing and governing their systems and quality of care and who do not have senior doctors overseeing clinical practice. EDMS has been careful in ensuring we have senior consultant level staff advising us in areas such as emergency medicine, anaesthesia, intensive and critical care and prehospital care. We believe that this approach is of the highest level and is necessary to meet the requirements of a demanding and specialised service.
The Clinical Governance group reviews all aspects of practice and the CG meetings are overseen by a consultant who reviews all cases and leads discussion as to how we can improve levels of care and make our practice safer.
Whether we are covering a large event, repatriating an intensive care patient from abroad by air, providing a sports medicine service, a specialist medical service or a single paramedic/nurse or doctor for an event our clinical governance system means that you can be assured of a safe and robust medical provider.
Sharing Information
Sharing information is extremely important. However it is vital for our patients to remember that all information recorded about you, no matter how small is treated in the strictest of confidence. We do not share information unless it is absolutely necessary to do so. However, sharing other types of information both into and out from EDMS is fundamental to safe practice. Examples include:
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MHRA clinical safety briefings – we are notified of all equipment, drug and other incidents nationally to ensure we take action if it affects us
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Liaison with the NHS services, PCT/CCGs, ambulance service, social services, other care services, the police and other organisations
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The Care Quality Commission – EDMS are legally obligated to inform the CQC of certain events
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Receiving current guidelines, reports, regulations and other material to ensure we comply with the very best standards