Quality

At Steno Diabetes Center we are continuously working towards improving the quality of our treatment. Our special areas of interest over the coming years will be those of accreditation and development of clinical quality. We also participate in national initiatives within the area of quality, such as the Danish National Indicator Project (NIP), establishment of a patient-safety culture, and national patient satisfaction surveys.

Accreditation
Just as other hospitals, Steno Diabetes Center must also be accredited according to the Danish Healthcare Quality Programme (Den Danske Kvalitetsmodel), which provides a set of standards developed for the Danish healthcare sector. This accreditation is expected in 2010.

The Danish Healthcare Quality Programme sets targets for good quality within virtually all areas of hospital operations, spanning from the healthcare services provided to the processes and structures that support the treatment of the patient. At the same time, the model provides guidelines for how to work systematically with quality improvement.

Laboratories remain outside the Danish Healthcare Quality Programme. Therefore, our laboratory at Steno Diabetes Center has decided to work towards accreditation using the ISO/EN/DS standard.

Development of clinical quality
The electronic patient journal helps us store all significant data, electronically and systematically, regarding our patients’ treatment. This provides us with unique possibilities of using these data to work purposefully towards improving clinical quality. The clinic’s three treatment teams receive continual feedback on the status of each patient group regarding various predetermined targets, for example, average HbA1c, blood pressure and current medical treatment. In this way the therapists are given the opportunity to assess, discuss and possibly improve their efforts.

The Danish National Indicator Project (NIP)
Within NIP, an interdisciplinary group of experts has determined standards for good treatment of diabetes, e.g., how often various measurements and examinations should be performed. Comparisons are made between the treatments offered at individual hospitals, and quality development can be monitored over time.

The NIP-standards are
• At least 95% of patients shall have their HbA1c measured a minimum of once a year
• At least 95% of patients shall have their blood pressure measured a minimum of once a year
• At least 90% of patients (> 30 yrs) shall have a lipid status made every other year
• At least 95% of patients shall be examined for albuminuria every other year
• At least 90% of patients shall have their eyes examined every other year
• At least 95% of patients shall have their eyes examined every four years
• At least 95% of patients shall have their feet examined every other year

Patient safety
One of our focus areas is patient safety; we want it to be as safe as possible to be treated with us. We want to learn from any possible mistakes and this is why we report unintended events to the national patient-safety database. We have an open culture as regards reporting of unintended events, and these events are brought up in our on-going quality and risk discussions. This enables us to amend our working processes, minimizing the risk of errors as much as possible.

User-satisfaction surveys
In line with other hospitals, Steno Diabetes Center conducts an annual user-satisfaction survey. Through this we learn what the patients think about us, and we take note of any criticism. The survey report will be accessible on our web site.