Our world has been changing every day and the recent outbreak of coronavirus has dramatically transformed the way we think about public health and patient care. The pandemic has shed light on the major issues of our healthcare systems and it made us realize the importance of effective management and well-functioning, social and health care systems. What we need is an equitable care system that complies with health regulations, benefits everyone and address future challenges successfully.
In the light of recent circumstances, Care Quality Commission (CQC) has adapted and changed the way they regulate. That is why the regulatory body has announced a new strategy which 'champions regulation driven by people's experiences of care.' The core principle of the strategy is an 'unremitting focus on safety, requiring a culture across health and care that enables people to speak up and in this way share learning and improvement opportunities'.
The new strategy outline of CQC focuses on four major themes:
People and communities
The new strategy would place its emphasis on what matters to people and communities as they access, use, and navigate between different healthcare services.
Smarter regulation
CQC ensures to employ wiser regulation that is more flexible and agile in approach, allowing them to better target its resources to manage risk and respond effectively and equitably when care is inadequate.
Safety through learning
Organizational cultures must be regulated to improve safety through learning, concentrating on expanding expertise, listening to and responding to people's experiences, and taking specific and proactive action when safety does not improve.
Accelerating improvement
Priority areas are being targeted to expedite development by collaborating and building partnerships with services and the people who utilise them.
The CQC has also stated two main goals for how they would regulate care services. These are:
- Evaluating local systems: Providing the public with impartial assurance about the quality of care in their area.
- Addressing health and care inequities: Advocating for equal access, experiences, and results from health and social care services.
What does the new strategy mean for care homes?
The CQC's new approach focuses on maintaining patient safety and increasing excellence in care services. The strategy outlines several major changes that the CQC will implement, both in terms of its regulatory role and its methodology to completing its regulatory job - JMS One applauds the regulator's movement toward a more pragmatic and appropriate approach.
As CQC outlines its shift toward more flexible and targeted quality evaluations, it signifies a transition away from across-the-board routine on-site inspections and toward a much more continual ongoing observation of activity and service quality.
This will be supplemented by a coordinated effort by the regulator to organise more frequent data collection and submissions from those it regulates, aided by the deployment of advanced digital platforms to make such data submissions easier and more efficient, to reduce duplication and unnecessary workload. The policy also demonstrates the CQC's growing interest in regulating the substandard quality of organisational culture, as well as its resolve to scrutinise and intervene when it sees it.
How care homes can improve their regulatory compliance?
As mentioned above, the new strategy of CQC focuses on adapting to the changing models of care such as integrated care systems and digitally-enabled care. In this context, it would be ideal to switch to digital platforms for your care homes to ensure efficient regulatory compliance.
JMS One always strives to adapt to regulatory changes in UK’s healthcare landscape to protect our clients and help their businesses thrive at the same time. Implementing a compliance management software like JMS One helps to improve regulatory compliance and care quality of your care homes sustainably and productively.
