Compliance to the National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness is nothing new for large acute NHS Trusts and since the Standards were introduced twenty years ago there have been a range of digital solutions developed to support Trusts in maintaining their compliance. With such enormous numbers of rooms and large workforces, digital solutions are a necessity, particularly when it comes to handling the massive amount of data generated during an audit.
For smaller settings such as GP surgeries, care homes and dentists, these solutions don’t work. First, they are prohibitively expensive for sites without the budget to absorb them. Second, they have lots of functionality that a primary care setting will simply never need. These leads to sites paying for functions they don’t use, and makes the solution unnecessarily complicated for the end-user. Finally, there is no digital replacement for the insight and experience of a qualified human auditor.
I’ve visited many sites during the rollout of our compliance service, and it’s been a pleasure to meet so many incredibly dedicated staff working in relatively small settings. The impact of the pandemic is still obvious – there has been very little easing of precautionary measures in healthcare settings, and patient numbers are as high as ever – but the resilience of the workforce and the pride they take in their settings is humbling.
That said, it’s always a bit of a game to try and spot that one “banana-skin” issue that could trip up a small site. Bear in mind that technical audits for compliance operate on percentage scores. The smaller your site, the more weight is attached to each individual element on that site, which is why it’s critical to be eagle-eyed when inspecting a smaller site.
Our site visits act as an early warning system. We’re on the side of the practice manager, a fresh set of eyes to scout out anything that has become a blind spot, or that has simple gone unnoticed. One site in particular that I visited recently was a good example. I spent around an hour there, as the site was very small. I identified eight separate issues, and I felt a little guilty pointing them out one by one to the exceptionally friendly team of staff on site. Their response was telling however – applying all of my recommendations was going to take them a couple of hours, at no added expense, but it made the difference between a 3-star rating and a 5-star rating. A digital solution would have picked up none of those issues – it is designed to measure the elements, not to identify potential problems.
Like the hundreds of “man versus machine” stories we’ve heard since the age of technology dawned, there is no replacement for the human brain, which is why our compliance service offers a far superior solution than simply paying a fortune for an app. We’re on the side of the staff, lending them our expertise and our insight in a friendly, effective and frictionless manner to help them celebrate the sites they are so proud of.
Get a quote from us today and one of my team will be straight out to support your site the way we have with so many others already. Get in touch here.
