Well attended webinar about the need for clinical auditing by Dr. Jan Schillebeeckx, MD
May 13, 2016
- basic safety standards for radiation protection as laid out in Council Directive 2013/59/Euratom
- taking actions in compliance with the QUAADRIL standard of IAEA
- local implementations of the Euratom directive in different member states
- a baseline evaluation of your department’s level of preparedness to meet the requirements for clinical audit, following an efficient streamlined process
- the use of tools enabling the execution of internal audits
- benchmarking of the most common problems in radiology departments, and solutions to address these
Based on regular interactions with radiology departments, all major problems encountered are listed below. Around 90% of the radiology departments say that they are facing ineffective reporting of critical, urgent and important radiological findings. And approximately 85% indicated that they have no justification process in place. Other typical findings are a lack of quality & document management system and no patient dosimetry. The described problems can be addressed using Qaelum’s BASELINE, QBOOK and DOSE software solutions.
Dr. Jan Schillebeeckx concluded the webinar with a questions & answers session:
What is the difference between internal and external audits?
The way Europe sees it in the directives, yearly clinical audits will be mandatory as of 2018. So radiology departments will have to organise their own internal audits on a yearly basis. And external auditors will come every 3 to 5 years or so to perform an external audit. The frequency of external audits will depend on what individual member states require.
A number of hospitals are applying for certifications, and they say they have no time for clinical audits. What is your opinion?
Doing clinical audits is a win-win for everybody. The items to be checked against good practices are in most cases the same as those evaluated in the process of obtaining accreditation. Therefor the recommendations formulated as part of clinical audits have a lot of value when preparing for accreditaion.
Who will organise external audits in Belgium and other European countries?
According to European and QUAADRIL guidelines, external audits cannot be done by the authorities. It is up to individual member states to decide which type of organization(s) needs to conduct external audits. I see initiatives where members of a number of different organizations gather with a strong involvement of scientific as well as professional radiology organizations.
Looking for more in-depth information?
Consider a manual assessment of your radiology department by quality experts of Qaelum. The BASELINE assessment is based on the standards for Quality Assurance Audit for Diagnostic Radiology Improvement and Learning (QUAADRIL, IAEA).