Archived: Optasia Medical Limited

Optasia Medical Limited is operated by Optasia Medical Limited.

At the time of inspection, the service was not providing any activity in scope of CQC registration, although were liaising with various trusts to set up contracts.

Optasia Medical Limited was actively providing services to US sites at the time of inspection, however this was outside of CQC scope.

Where the report mentions work previously completed, it was based on two UK pilots undertaken with trusts in 2019.

The service provides secondary readings of computed tomography (CT) scans for patients aged 50 and over. Radiologists from an NHS trust undertake the primary reading for a specific reason, for example to identify a cancer. Optasia undertake a secondary reading aiming to identify missed fractures of the spine, as often these can be missed by the primary reader due to time constraints and resources.

Missed fractures can have a debilitating effect on the patient, and certain types of fractures in the spine can be a sign of osteoporosis. Therefore, offering a secondary reading may identify osteoporosis or other problems and prevent further injuries, complications and hospital admissions, that may have otherwise been missed.

The service also develops software to enable information technology programmes to identify missed fractures, to the same standard of a consultant radiologist. However, this is out of scope of CQC regulation, so was not looked at during the inspection.

The service works closely with experts in osteoporosis from universities and charities to support development of practice in this area.

We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the inspection on 9 January 2020.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we ask the same five questions of all services: are they safe, effective, caring, responsive to people's needs, and well-led? Where we have a legal duty to do so we rate services’ performance against each key question as outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.

The main service provided by this service was teleradiology.

We have not rated this service before. We rated it as Good overall.

We found the following areas of good practice:

• The service provided mandatory training in key skills to all staff and made sure everyone completed it.

• Staff understood how to protect patients from abuse and the service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse, and they knew how to apply it.

• The design and maintenance of equipment kept people safe. Staff were trained to use them.

• Staff identified and quickly acted upon patients at risk of deterioration.

• The service had enough staff with the right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep patients safe from avoidable harm and to provide the right care and treatment.

• Staff recognised and reported incidents and near misses. Managers investigated incidents and shared lessons learned with the whole team and the wider service.

• The service could be accessed in a timely way and staff could meet targets for scan result turnaround.

• The service had a complaints policy and knew their responsibilities regarding responding to complaints. There were no complaints about the service in the past 12 months.

• Leaders had the skills and abilities to run the service. They understood and managed the priorities and issues the service faced. They were visible and approachable in the service for staff. They supported staff to develop their skills and take on more senior roles.

• The service had a vision for what it wanted to achieve and a strategy to turn it into action, developed with all relevant stakeholders. Leaders and staff understood and knew how to apply them and monitor progress.

• Staff felt respected, supported and valued. They were focused on the needs of patients receiving care. The service promoted equality and diversity in daily work and provided opportunities for career development. The service had an open culture where patients, their families and staff could raise concerns without fear.

• Leaders and teams used systems to manage performance effectively. They identified and escalated relevant risks and issues and identified actions to reduce their impact. They had plans to cope with unexpected events. Staff contributed to decision-making to help avoid financial pressures compromising the quality of care.

• The service collected reliable data and analysed it. Staff could find the data they needed, in easily accessible formats, to understand performance, make decisions and improvements. The information systems were integrated and secure. Data or notifications were consistently submitted to external organisations as required.

• Leaders actively engaged with staff and local organisations to plan and manage services. They collaborated with partner organisations to help improve services for patients.

• All staff were committed to continually learning and improving services. They had a good understanding of quality improvement methods and the skills to use them. Leaders encouraged innovation and participation in research.

Ann Ford

Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (North)