Clostridium difficile multidisciplinary team root cause analysis: impact on clinical care and circumvention of financial penalties posed by clinical commissioning groups, but at what cost?

Saeed, Kordo, Petridou, Christina, Gray, Hazel, Dryden, Matthew, Davis-Blues, Karen, Lucero, Sheryl, Parker, Natalie, Keyser, Taryn, Matthews, Tanya, Cortes, Nick, Kidd, Stephen, Thomas, Claire, Peacock, Heather, Hornzee, Joanna and Wake, Bruce (2018) Clostridium difficile multidisciplinary team root cause analysis: impact on clinical care and circumvention of financial penalties posed by clinical commissioning groups, but at what cost? Journal of Infection Prevention, 19 (2), 54-61. (doi:10.1177/1757177417726155).

Abstract

Background: In Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, in addition to an on-the-spot investigation into hospital-onset Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) by the infection prevention team, a multidisciplinary team root cause analysis (MDT-RCA) forum has been developed. The MDT-RCA aims to deliver a more thorough investigation into individual cases and the recommendation of cases to the clinical commissioning groups (CCG) appeals panel against potential financial penalties (£10,000 per breached case). We mainly aimed to investigate the financial impact of MDT-RCAs to the Trust. 

Methodology: Over two years, 84 cases of hospital-onset CDI cases were reviewed by the MDT-RCA forum.

Results: Among this cohort, no additional learning outcomes were identified by the MDT-RCAs over those that were found by on-the-spot investigations. In total, 543 staff members attended the MDT-RCAs at a potential cost to the Trust of £23,795.74–£51,670.10. The Trust appealed against financial penalties for 27 cases and 14 were successful, i.e. £140,000 would have been avoided had targets been breached by 14 cases. However, targets were only breached by two cases, meaning only £20,000 in fines was avoided. Deducting this from the total costs of the MDT-RCA meant the Trust lost £3,795.74–£31,670.10.

Conclusion: Over the two years reviewed, the MDT-RCA proved to be costly to the Trust, with no additional learning or quality improvement measures identified.

This record has no associated files available for download.

Contributors

Author: Kordo Saeed

Download statistics