The Royal College of Chiropractors’ Quality Standards

Quality Standards Lead – Stuart Smellie FRCC

Quality Standards are tools designed to help deliver the best possible outcomes for patients. They are a series of specific, concise quality statements with associated measures that provide aspirational, but achievable, markers of high-quality patient care covering the treatment of different conditions. They also play an important part in addressing the increasing priority being placed on improving quality and patient outcomes.

The primary purpose of The Royal College of Chiropractors’ quality standards is to make it clear what quality care is by providing patients, the public, healthcare professionals, commissioners and chiropractors with definitions of high-quality chiropractic care.

By providing a clear description of what a high-quality service looks like, clinics can improve quality and achieve excellence. The quality standards should encompass statutory requirements, best practice and existing clinical guidelines, but they are not a new set of targets or mandatory indicators for performance management. They are, however, a useful source to form the basis of clinical audit and to identify priorities for future improvement.

Chiropractors are encouraged to adopt the Royal College of Chiropractors quality standards as practice policy. They can be used as a source of identifying CPD, or clinic promotion, perhaps when tendering for NHS contracts, or even at a national level. They enable healthcare professionals to understand the standard of service that you provide, and allow commissioners to be confident that the services they are purchasing are of high quality. Importantly, they also help patients to understand what service they should expect.

QUALITY STANDARD CONSULTATIONS

New Consultation on Chiropractic Quality Standard: Low Back Pain & Sciatica (active from Sat 22nd June 2024)

The Royal College of Chiropractors announces the launch of a consultation on its draft Low Back Pain & Sciatica Quality Standard which updates, combines and replaces the previous Chiropractic Quality Standards on Chronic Low Back Pain and Acute Low Back Pain. The views of all stakeholders including interested organisations, chiropractors, other healthcare professionals, patients and the public are sought. Comments are invited on any aspect of the document including its relevance and applicability to the chiropractic profession, the achievability of the standards described in the quality statements, the utility of the quality statements in terms of promoting best care, the document’s accuracy and validity in terms of the evidence base and the clarity of the content to practitioners, patients and other stakeholders. Comments must be submitted by the deadline of 12 noon on Friday 2nd August 2024 using the consultation form provided below.

LBP Sciatica QS v.6 Public Consultation Draft
LBPAS Consultation Response Form
Deadline for responses – 12 noon on Fri 2nd August 2024

PUBLISHED QUALITY STANDARDS

Headache Quality Standard (Full version)
Headache Quality Standard (Short version)
Headache Quality Standard (Assessment & Management Flowchart)
An associated audit tool is available to College members who login and visit Standards>Clinical Audit >Clinical Audit resources.

Osteoporosis Quality Standard (Full version)
Osteoporosis Quality Standard (Short version)
Osteoporosis Quality Standard (Assessment & Management Flowchart)
An associated audit tool is available to College members who login and visit Standards>Clinical Audit >Clinical Audit resources.

Chronic Pain Quality Standard (Short version)
Chronic Pain Quality Standard (Page spread version)
Chronic Pain Quality Standard (A4 page version)
An associated audit toolkit is in development.

Chronic Low Back Pain Quality Standard (Short version)
Chronic Low Back Pain Quality Standard (Page spread version)
Chronic Low Back Pain Quality Standard (A4 page version)
An associated audit toolkit is available to College members who login and visit Standards>Clinical Audit >Clinical Audit resources.

Acute Low Back Pain Quality Standard (Short version)
Acute Low Back Pain Quality Standard (page spread version)
Acute Low Back Pain Quality Standard (A4 page version)
An associated audit toolkit is available to College members who login and visit Standards>Clinical Audit >Clinical Audit resources.

Supportive Self Management Quality Standard (Short version)
Supportive Self Management Quality Standard (Page spread version)
Supportive Self Management Quality Standard (A4 page version)
An associated audit toolkit is available to College members who login and visit Standards>Clinical Audit >Clinical Audit resources.

Acute Neck Pain Quality Standard (Short version)
Acute Neck Pain Quality Standard (Page spread version)
Acute Neck Pain Quality Standard (A4 page version)
An associated audit toolkit is available to College members who login and visit Standards>Clinical Audit >Clinical Audit resources.

Clinical Governance Quality Standard (Short version)
Clinical Governance Quality Standard (Page spread version)
Clinical Governance Quality Standard (A4 page version)