Quality assurance or ‘QA8’ forms – what are they?

The Trust is currently working on ways of improving our clinical knowledge and standards of care.

This can be done by pre-hospital clinicians discussing their decision-making processes and interventions which can help develop future practice.

A way in which we are working to improve the opportunity for clinical case review is via completion of a quality assurance form (QA8).

Quality assurance forms are to be completed for every intervention undertaken as part of extended clinical practice, including, but not limited to, new catastrophic haemorrhage equipment and EZ-IO insertion.

A completed QA8 form can give an open, transparent and balanced review by specialist paramedics and show members of the clinical board the technique of how intervention is performed.

The information on the form, which can be completed anonymously, will allow staff to discuss learning points with the wider clinical audience.

By reviewing the way we work, we can Identify what can and does go wrong, and what factors influence this, so we can limit adverse events and ensure that positive actions are taken to prevent a recurrence.

Two example of QA8 submission are included below.

The first provides the review group with situational and clinical factors that have supported the clinicians’ decision-making process. In comparison, the later example is scant and lacks the credible clinical and situational information to responsibly critique the need for the intervention, and the practice of inserting and EZ-IO needle. Please note the patients in both examples are not real patients.

It is hoped that the former example will provide you with a structure to work from when submitting your QA8 forms.

Published 24th March, 2016