Quality assurance tool: taking a whole-system approach.

The London Cancer Alliance (LCA) has developed the Quality Clinical Board Exception Report (QCBER), a tool that supports delivery of quality assurance across its member organisations through its quality assurance framework and escalation protocol. The process improves quality assurance and performance in terms of patient safety, patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes. This article describes how implementation of a robust quality assurance process supported by a simple tool can help healthcare organisations improve patient care and avoid duplication when sharing quality information among providers and across healthcare systems. It also explains how application of the tool can help organisations build evidence of best practice in the five essential Care Quality Commission areas: safety, effectiveness, care, responsiveness and good management.