Welcome to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine's Quality Improvement and Clinical Audit pages. Read information about delivering quality care and quality improvement, alongside the Royal College of Emergency Medicine's Clinical Audit resources and reports.
This page is managed by the Quality Assurance and Audit committee, which is part of the Quality in Emergency Care Committee: further information about these committees can be found on the RCEM ‘Structure and Governance’ Committees pages. Available at: RCEM ‘Structure and Governance’ Committees
The QECC has produced a series of strategy documents, explaining the role of RCEM, and these committees, in improving patient care. These are:
If you would like to comment on the content of these pages or become involved in these committees, please contact the chairs of the committees.
Should you have any questions about the RCEM QIPs, please email rcemqip@rcem.ac.uk or telephone 020 7404 1999.
If you have any other questions around RCEM guidance, publications or committees please email quality@rcem.ac.uk or telephone 020 7404 1999.
The National Data Opt Out Policy started on 31 March 2022. RCEM has prepared a statement about Quality Improvement Programme participation and the National Data Opt Out Policy. See the statement here.
Please note that registration for these QIPs will open in September this year.
Registration is now open to all Type 1 UK Emergency Departments. Please complete and submit the Clinical Audit Registration Form via the button below to register your ED.
The QIP Support Clinics are online drop-in sessions that you can join and have the opportunity to clarify any queries that you may have directly with the experts from the Clinical and Quality teams.
Please use the link below to register for the sessions. Once you have completed your registration, the Quality team will send you the details to join the event- you are more than welcome to share this to your local team!
Session registration
It is important for the College to maintain contact details for consultants and administrators responsible for audit/QIPs in their Departments in order to keep them informed of RCEM QIPs developments. Please notify the College administrator of any changes to your contact details (see details below).
Please see the Data Entry Portal user guide below:
RCEM QIP Portal User Guide 2022/23
Should you have any questions please email rcemqip@rcem.ac.uk or telephone 020 7404 1999.
A learning tool to support the quality of urgent and emergency care services for patients was launched on 30th March 2011 by the Royal College of General Practitioners. Go to the Audit Guidance page for more information and to download the toolkit.
For the first time, a survey of bereaved relatives’ views has been performed alongside organisational and clinical audit elements, as part of a national audit of care of the dying. The audit was delivered by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) in collaboration with the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute Liverpool. The full national audit report and an executive summary can be downloaded from the Royal College of Physicians website.
The Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) manages and develops the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP). In addition HQIP is developing guidance and resources to assist local clinical audit programmes.
+ 2022/23: Infection Prevention, Mental Health (Self-Harm) and Care of Older People
Mental Health (Self-Harm) Year 1
Year 1 data collection 3 October 2022 – 3 October 2023
Care of Older People Year 1 –
Year 1 data Collection 5 May 2023 – 3 October 2023
Reports for the 2022-23 QIPs are due for publication in early 2024.
Registration has now closed after being open to all Type 1 UK Emergency Departments.
Registered Emergency Departments (ED) are able to continue using the system for local data entry and quality improvement, and will be able to see this updated in their online dashboards.
Registration was open to all Type 1 UK Emergency Departments. Looking for information for your Quality Accounts? Log on to the portal to find the number of cases submitted.
*Note: These documents, initially published May 2018, were republished on 10 October to correct a data sampling error. See the announcement for full details of the changes.
*Note: These documents, initially published May 2018, were republished on 10 October to correct a data sampling error. See the announcement for full details of the changes.
* Note: These documents, initially published May 2018, were republished on 10 October to correct a data sampling error. See the announcement for full details of the changes.
Each of the three audits are on the Quality Accounts 2015/16 list.
Find out more about the Inclusion health clinical audit piloted in December 2015. This audit looked at the organisation of EDs and the standard of care provided to homeless patients.
Important notice: The audit website address has changed. Previous audit reports and data files can be accessed at audit.rcem.ac.uk. The national and site-specific reports were published on 29 May 2015. The national reports can be downloaded below. Site-specific reports can be downloaded by registered users by logging into audit.rcem.ac.uk
A number of features have been improved for the 2014/15 audits. A summary of the changes can be found on the audit site bulletin board. Full details about how to use the system can be found in the user manual. Thank you to everyone who sent feedback about the system, which was of great help in making the improvements.
To download the individual report for your ED please go to the RCEM audit website (registered users only).
Participants were sent a report comparing their findings with the national results and previous findings on 24 July 2013.
A huge thank you to all of the Emergency Departments who submitted audit data for the 2012-13 audits. Reports have been sent by e-mail to each participating ED, comparing individual ED findings with the national results and RCEM standards (reports sent by e-mail on 6th February 2012).
In line with accepted best practice, and the expectations of our patients and the wider public, all audit data collected by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine from August 2012 are being shared with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), and placed in the public domain. It is important to note that clinical audit is an indicator of the quality of care provided and not an absolute measure; audit data should be interpreted alongside other indicators of care within the local context, and taking account of factors specific to individual Emergency Departments (EDs). Clinical audit is a quality improvement process that seeks to improve patient care and outcomes through systematic review of care against explicit criteria and the implementation of change. All EDs should seek to use audit data to help identify areas for improvement and seek to implement change to further improve, regardless of performance in relation to other EDs. Further information regarding the purpose and conduct of the College’s clinical audit programme can be found below.
The results from all participating EDs for the 2012 RCEM audits of feverish children, fractured neck of femur and renal colic are now available here. Details of the audit methodology and criteria can be found in the data collection tools which are available to download at the bottom of this page.
A huge thank you to all of the Emergency Departments who submitted audit data for the 2011-12 audits. Reports have been sent by e-mail to each participating ED, comparing individual ED findings with the national results and RCEM standards (reports sent by e-mail on 18th May 2012).
In December 2010 the Royal College of Emergency Medicine published a standard for ‘Consultant Sign-Off’ in UK and ROI Emergency Departments. This included an undertaking to audit and review the standard during 2011, and the College has therefore conducted a national audit of the standard in September 2011.
The purpose of the audit was to identify current levels of compliance with the College standard and the impact of this standard on current practice, in order to inform subsequent review.
Reports were sent to each participating ED on 22 December 2011.
The College and the Quality in Emergency Care Committee would like to thank all ED staff for their continued support of the national RCEM audit programme.
We would like to thank all of the Emergency Departments who submitted audit data for the 2010-11 round. A record number of EDs participated. Reports have been sent by e-mail to each participating ED, comparing individual ED findings with the national results and RCEM standards (28 April 2011).
We would like to thank all of the Emergency Departments who have submitted audit data for the 2009-10 round.
Reports have been sent by e-mail to each participating ED, comparing individual ED findings with the national results and RCEM standards (5th Nov 2011).
An executive summary of the national findings for the three audits can be downloaded here:
The national findings for the audits undertaken in 2008/2009 are available below:
The reports have been prepared by the Care Quality Commission and compare your Emergency Department with other departments nationally that completed audit returns.
We are sure that all departments will strive to make continuous improvements but would ask all those that fall in the lower performance quartile to address improvement issues as a matter of urgency in order to ensure high quality is delivered to all who use your service.
We would also encourage you to share these reports with your trust board.
Information from these reports will feed in to the Care Quality Commission’s assessment of NHS Trusts.
Should you think that any of the information contained in these reports misrepresent the results for your department, please contact RCEM by emailing quality@rcem.ac.uk or by telephoning 020 7400 6108.
The College has produced a report summarising the results from three of the national audits (pain in children, fractured neck of femur and paracetamol overdose) which have been repeated in Emergency Departments (EDs) between 2003 and 2008.
+ How do I submit or edit data?
All data should be submitted online at rcem.casecapture.com. You will need to log in to submit data, all registered users have been set up with accounts. Department Admin users will be able to set up additional user accounts for staff in their organisation.
The audit questions and standards, as well as the methodology, evidence base and analysis plan are accessible in the audit information packs.
The system is quite intuitive to use, but if you need any help please have a look at the QIP user guide. This explains how to use the system to enter data, check your data, and create new user accounts.
The charts are called Statistical Process Control (SPC) charts. They plot your data each week against the national data (or your country data if you prefer), so you can see variation and improvement over time. Making Data Count is a really good guide developed by NHS Improvement to explain all about SPC charts.
Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Octavia House, 54 Ayres Street, London, SE1 1EU.
Please contact finance@rcem.ac.uk for bank details.
This means the number of eligible patients seen by your ED over the data collection period (1 January to 31 December), not the data submission period (1 August to 31 January). You can estimate this by running a query of the number of cases seen for the same period last year, or cases seen over the past month x12.
No, these audits are specific to type 1 Emergency Departments.
This page collates some of the most useful quality improvement resources for ED staff, including trainees and supervisors preparing for exams.
“The conception of improvement finally reached as a result of the review was to define improvement as better patient experience and outcomes achieved through changing provider behaviour and organisation through using a systematic change method and strategies.” (Dr John Øvretveit, Does Improving Quality Save Money? Sept 2009).
The Institute of Medicine (IoM) defines quality care as: safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient and equitable. Read more about these six domains of quality in Crossing the Quality Chasm (IoM, March 2001).
Whilst a good knowledge of QI is useful for all ED staff, below are specific resources you will need to supervise trainees in choosing projects and completing a high quality QIP.
Trainees should be encouraged to practice small QI projects during foundation and core training, either as collaborators or project leads. It is generally accepted that trainees do better if they choose their own subject areas as this helps maintain interest. Regular review of a trainee’s project is important.
Introduction to QI principles and methods
Data and analysis
Courses, further learning and local initiatives
Journals
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine's Safety Resources hub where you will find information and resources about alerts, safety resources, safety in the Emergency Department and safety events.
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Welcome to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine's Service Design & Delivery pages. Here you will find resources and documents on Emergency Department Design and Delivery, Informatics, ECDS, Research, Workforce and AAC.
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The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has clinical guidelines available for professionals working in emergency medicine.
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