In our survey of senior hospital managers, 50% now said they had commercial visitor (CV) policies in place. Of these, approximately the same figure believed that they could – and indeed, should – be enforced more effectively.
And when it came to the areas most affected by the lack of implementation of policies relating to CVs, 33% believed it was widespread across the entire hospital, whilst 30% thought it to have the greatest impact on patient and staff safety.
Such findings are a definite cause for action and the issues they raise could be easily remedied through the implementation of a policy enforcement and compliance service – a simple and zero charge process for the healthcare provider of obtaining, checking and assessing the qualifications of CVs to ensure their compliance with access and safety policies.
To put these concerns into context, in one particular UK teaching hospital, over 12,000 commercial visitors are present in patient care areas each year.
It’s an issue recognised by the Government and is on Jeremy Hunt’s agenda to improve patient safety – he has already announced measures and recommendations across the NHS.
The installation of policy enforcement and compliance services is expected to be further driven by Lord Carter of Coles’ full report on Operational Productivity in NHS Providers next month, with the interim findings already recommending the ‘greater use of sales representative tracking systems’.
At IntelliCentrics – as the world-leading policy enforcement and compliance service for the healthcare sector – we work with NHS Trusts to help them improve patient safeguarding with minimal management and at no charge .
Through the implementation of our SEC3URE policy enforcement and compliance service , the risk of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) is reduced, health and safety quality standards are raised and CV access to wards, departments and clinicians is better managed.
To find out more about how IntelliCentrics can improve your patient safety click here.