Our highly experienced and clinically-led team offers a range of services to support commissioners. We ensure that provider contracts are delivered with optimum clinical, quality and safety standards, whilst simultaneously delivering the best possible value for money.
We provide a broad range of services including clinical quality and patient safety monitoring, contract performance monitoring, training for care providers and bid evaluation.
We bring:
- Robust systems and processes to effectively manage and monitor the quality and safety of your contracts, drawing on our experience of managing over 500 NHS Continuing Healthcare contracts. All contracts are assessed against factors such as contract value, risk, complaints, serious incidents / safeguarding, multi-agency engagement, location and performance.
- Access to our clinical experts to ensure patient needs are being met. Our senior and specialist nurses are skilled in many areas including tissue viability, infection prevention and control, dementia and challenging behaviour.
- The ‘Bravo’ portal – our bespoke system which encourages effective contract management, facilitates communication with providers and delivers a full audit trail of contract changes, suspension or performance notices.
- An established Service Escalation Panel (SEP), developed in partnership with local authorities across our customer base, which risk assesses poor performing providers and imposes the appropriate sanctions.
- Our unique, web-based care homes dashboard (founded upon NHS Standard Contract and CQC Inspection guidance) which enables care homes to report on a range of clinical indicators as well as highlighting bed availability. The dashboard provides vital local intelligence so that commissioning decisions are based on accurate evidence.
- A full complaints and comments handling service to ensure positive and negative feedback from patients and other organisations is appropriately shared and lessons learned.
Benefits:
Our approach is based on proactive provider management so that any issues are identified and addressed quickly, keeping your patients safe and your service compliant.
Drawing on both our in house clinical expertise and effective use of robust IT systems, we work with you to monitor and manage performance as well as identifying and implementing ways to proactively improve service delivery.
“I have been extremely impressed by the dedication of the clinical quality team ... I believe that patient and client experience has improved greatly as a result of the improved visibility of quality.”
Lynn Wilmott-Shepherd, Commissioning and Delivery Director, NHS Erewash Clinical Commissioning Group
RELEVANT READING
Find out more about our quality and clinical governance service by accessing the resources below.
Improving reporting process efficiencies for the NHS England Midlands Region specialised commissioning pharmacy team
The NHS England Midlands Region specialised commissioning pharmacy team agreed a package of support with Arden & GEM that would see the CSU’s medicines optimisation team provide additional capacity and capability in invoice validation, drugs challenges, contract meetings and commissioning query response.
Accessing post-registration training: a regional survey
The findings from our pilot study, commissioned by Health Education England, to explore potential inconsistencies in training across different pharmacy sectors in the Midlands and East of England have been published in the Pharmaceutical Journal.
Understanding the complexity and acuity of a female acute mental health ward
When Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation NHS Trust wanted to better understand the complexity and acuity of its female acute mental health ward, Arden & GEM’s Clinical Support team was tasked with undertaking a ‘discovery’ project.
Providing pharmacy expertise and capacity to Primary Care Networks and GP practices
When Clarendon Lodge Medical Centre and Dene and Stour Valleys PCN needed a period of fixed term pharmacy support, Arden & GEM’s medicines optimisation service was able to provide experienced professionals to deliver tailored support.
Integrating community pharmacy to deliver better patient care across the East of England
Working in partnership with NHS England’s East of England regional team, system partners, community pharmacies and Local Pharmaceutical Committees, Arden & GEM developed a community pharmacy strategy for the region.
Providing medicines optimisation expertise to regional Specialised Commissioning teams
When three NHS England regional specialised commissioning teams needed additional capacity and capability to support them with their medicines optimisation responsibilities, dedicated resource from Arden & GEM’s clinical support service was provided.
Supporting Black Country ICB to harmonise and develop clinical treatment policies
Arden & GEM assigned a team to support Black Country ICB ensure there were harmonised clinical treatment policies in place across its new geographic footprint to ensure fair access to treatments and interventions.
Supporting dispensing practices to deliver approved clinical audits in the East of England
Arden & GEM’s medicines optimisation team was engaged by NHS England East of England regional community pharmacy contracting team to review over 200 Dispensary Service Quality Scheme clinical audits by the end of the 2022/23 financial year.
Delivering pharmacist-led specialist clinics for secondary care inpatients and outpatients
A large trust in the Midlands commissioned Arden & GEM’s clinical support service to provide specialist pharmacist resource to deliver diabetes and hypertension clinics at one of their hospital sites to help manage complex patients.
The Discharge Medicines Service: Improving patient care through cross-sector working
Arden & GEM’s Pharmacy Lead will be joining the NHS Medicines Optimisation Conference on 30 November 2022 to share the aims of the Discharge Medicines Service and successful approaches to implementation.
CONTACT US
If you’d like to find out more about quality and clinical governance, please contact us here: