Kidney Quality Improvement Partnership

Working together to develop, support and share improvement in kidney services to improve patient outcomes, reduce unwarranted variation and achieve value care.


What is KQIP?

KQIP is a dynamic network of kidney health professionals, patients and carers who are committed to developing, supporting and sharing improvement in kidney services, to enhance outcomes and quality of life for people with kidney disease.


What does KQIP do?

KQIP aims to improve the lives of adults and children affected by kidney disease by supporting healthcare professionals, kidney units, kidney networks and commissioners across the UK to achieve the highest quality of care for patients. KQIP builds on rather than replaces existing quality improvement structures and will help kidney services embed quality improvement into daily practice so that its part of the day job for everyone working to provide kidney services.

KQIP will help us better understand and reduce unwarranted variation in standards and accessibility of care.

KQIP will spread and share good practice.


KQIP's definition of quality improvement

KQIP has chosen to define quality improvement using Batalden and Davidoff's statement as follows:

Quality Improvement is the combined and unceasing efforts of everyone - kidney healthcare professionals, patients with kidney disease and their families, commissioners of kidney services, researchers, and educators - to make the changes that will lead to better patient outcomes (health), better system performance (care) and better professional development (learning). This definition arises from our conviction that healthcare will not realise its full potential unless change-making becomes an intrinsic part of everyone's job, every day, in all parts of the system.


-Batalden PB, Davidoff F.
Qual Saf Health Care. 2007 Feb; 16 (1) : 2-3.

KQIP's aims

  • KQIP will focus on embedding systematic Quality Improvement (QI) into everyday multidisciplinary paediatric and adult practice by clinicians and managerial staff within all renal services including kidney transplantation.

  • KQIP will provide expert clinical strategic advice regarding QI within renal services to NHS England and the other UK countries.

  • It will facilitate education, project management and capture of outcome data for QI projects in collaboration with renal clinical networks/Regional QI architecture and local renal units.

  • It is anticipated that this supportive framework will provide the freedom for clinicians to identify, foster, and encourage local innovation (bottom-up ideas and priorities) and to address the education of clinical staff to improve the quality of practice; with an expectation that this learning will be passed on and shared.

 

Governance

KQIP is managed by the Partnership Board and a small operational group.

Board members can be viewed here and they work to the requirements of the KQIP Operational Framework including Terms of Reference which details the roles of the workstreams.

Information about the founding partners of KQIP appear here.