InHealth Community Diagnostic Centre - Hornchurch

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

This means we looked for evidence that people’s care, treatment and support assessed their needs and promoted good outcomes, based on the best available evidence. We also looked for evidence that leaders instilled a culture of improvement, where understanding current outcomes and exploring best practice was part of their everyday work.

At our last assessment, this key question was not rated. At this assessment this key question has been rated good. This meant care and treatment were planned and delivered in line with people’s assessed needs, current guidance and evidence-based practice.

We have not awarded this service a score for Effective.

Find out about when we will not publish a key question score and what we look at when we assess Effective.

The service made sure people’s care and treatment was effective by assessing and reviewing their health, care, wellbeing and communication needs with them.

Patients received clear information about their appointments and were encouraged to contact the service with any concerns. People’s MRI scan requirements, suitability for the scan procedure and arrangements for scan reporting were reviewed and discussed with them.

Comprehensive pre-scan assessments were completed to identify risks and ensure safe care. People who used the service told us staff carried out assessments prior to undertaking scan procedures to identify key risks, and these considered their needs and preferences.

Individual needs were considered at referral so appropriate arrangements could be made, and we saw alerts where patients required interpreters or had additional needs.

Translation services were available for people who did not speak English as a first language. Staff received training to support people with communication needs, which helped them assess people’s needs more effectively and provide appropriate support.

The service planned and delivered people’s care and treatment with them, including what was important and mattered to them. They did this in line with legislation and current evidence-based good practice and standards.

Clinical guidelines and pathways were based on national standards, including guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) safety guidelines for MRI equipment. For example, staff followed the MHRA safety guidelines for MRI equipment in clinical use.

The centre had an audit schedule in place this included audits of individual areas including, patient experience, health and safety, emergency evacuation and patient identification.

Staff followed a number of MRI scan pathways and protocols. Scan protocols and pathways were developed by the corporate provider centrally. Staff understood how to access these via the intranet.

Staff used the Society of Radiographers ‘pause and check’ system. This is a system of checks that need to be made when any MRI examination is undertaken.

Evidence showed the service used feedback from image quality audits to identify learning and improvement opportunities. Image quality audits were completed at corporate level, with any issues fed back to local services for assurance, learning and improvement. These audits identified opportunities to improve image quality, and feedback was shared with staff to ensure scans were being completed in line with best practice guidance.

The service worked well across teams and services to support people. They made sure people only needed to tell their story once by sharing their assessment of needs when people moved between different services.

Staff at all levels worked well together to ensure patients had a positive experience at the service. The service held daily huddles to share information and allocate daily tasks.

We saw there was effective daily communication and team working between the radiographers, management and clinical assistants so people’s scans could be planned, coordinated and delivered effectively. Staff routinely engaged colleagues across the provider’s other locations to plan and deliver services.

The service communicated effectively with external partners and undertook scans for local NHS providers and private providers of healthcare insurance. Radiographers could escalate possible signs of disease or abnormal findings to radiologists through the picture archiving and communication system (PACS) and radiology information system (RIS). Radiologists could also escalate significant findings to referrers when needed.

The service supported people to manage their health and wellbeing. The service supported people to live healthier lives and where possible, reduced their future needs for care and support.

We observed that there was a welcome book in the MRI waiting area which included health promotion information such as an eat well guide.

Health information on the InHealth website helped patients understand conditions, investigations and screening programmes. However, there was limited health promotion information available such as smoking cessation or alcohol awareness.

We did not look at Monitoring and improving outcomes during this assessment. There is no previous rating for the Effective key question so we cannot yet publish a score for this area.

The service told people about their rights around consent and respected these when delivering person-centred care and treatment.

The staff were respectful to people and ensured procedures were explained thoroughly to guide consent. Considerations such as language barriers were understood by staff who were aware of informed consent and the need for people to understand the information shared with them to manage risks and maintain safety. Procedures ensured that people who did not speak English as a first language could still give informed consent, using telephone interpreters where required.

Staff told us if a person lacked capacity to make their own decisions, then they would carry out an assessment as part of the initial consultation process to determine if they could proceed with their scan. This was supported by the providers mental capacity policy. Staff told us they understood how to obtain informed consent from people who used the service before commencing scans. This included respecting people’s wishes if they made the decision not to go ahead.