Best Quality Improvement 2010 winners

Best Quality Improvement

Category proudly co-sponsored by:  

Champion: Jane Smith, Deputy Editor, BMJ

Recognising teams making measurable improvements to the quality and safety of health care.

Openness and accountability have helped the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain and Ireland steer the UK towards significant improvements in the safety of patients. 

The society has bravely pioneered the collection of accurate data on outcomes among patients undergoing surgery and placed information on mortality rates in the public domain. This approach, seen by some as controversial at first, was needed, says the society, because patient safety can be monitored and quality of care improved only if accurate data is available.

Under the society’s initiative, each cardiac surgeon completes a detailed dataset on each patient undergoing surgery, and this information is submitted to the national analysis centre (the Central Cardiac Audit Database (CCAD)) in the NHS Information Authority.

Since its introduction the initiative has resulted in measurable improvements in safety; and despite patients being older and having more comorbidity in recent years, mortality rates have fallen steadily. In a novel approach the society discussed with patients and the media how the data should be presented to the public. Under the auspices of the Healthcare Commission a “public portal” was set up to provide information on activity and outcomes for all units.

Leslie Hamilton, the society’s president, says: “This award recognises the vision of our society to collect details on the outcome of our patients, the commitment and dedication of all cardiac surgeons to collecting good quality data, and the courage of our members to use the data to review performance in order to improve the quality of care for our patients.

“We have shown that good quality data collection is possible despite all perceived obstacles. Knowledge that outcomes in all units are under professional scrutiny gives reassurance to patients that their care will be of high quality.

“I hope this award will encourage other specialties to continue to develop processes to collect information on the outcomes of their patients.”