Clinical Quality Assurance
Our commitment to quality
Our service has some of the most technologically advanced diagnostic imaging equipment, including one of Europe’s 3.0 Tesla Mobile MRI Scanners, and the latest PET/CT scanning technology. We work closely with the NHS, offering an efficient and innovative service to patients.
To continue to streamline our patient’s pathway and maintain the excellent standards of imaging and reporting, we support all our clinical processes with a thorough commitment to quality – and a robust Quality Management System. Our clinical governance structure and audit processes enable us to constantly evaluate our clinical service and develop if required.
We were the first diagnostic imaging service to meet the Quality Standard for Imaging (QSI) standards and the first imaging service to be certified with ISO 9001:2008. We are registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
We are patient confidential data opt-out compliant. We do not use your confidential information for research or planning purposes unless you have specifically consented for us to do so. You can read our privacy policy about this here: NHS Patient Data Opt – Privacy Policy.
We constantly strive to improve the service we provide and learn from patients’ comments. We encourage all users of our services to complete a Patient Questionnaire or Referrer Survey. If you have any complaints, comments or suggestions on how we can improve our service please call us on 01242 535910 or email ceo@cobalthealth.co.uk.
Cobalt is working safely during the current COVID-19 situation for the optimum protection of our patients and staff. Click the following link to read our latest Working safely during COVID-19 document: Working safely during COVID-19 – Cobalt Health.
Care Quality Commission
The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. Their aim is to make sure better care is provided for everyone. Cobalt has been registered with the CQC since October 2010. Our registration covers diagnostic and screening procedures and the treatment of disease, disorder or injury.
For the full CQC report of The ITM Imaging Centre visit here.
CQC overall rating for the Institute of Translational Medicine Imaging Centre, Birmingham
Quality Standard for Imaging (QSI)
Cobalt provides a patient-focused service, being the first in the UK to be accredited in accordance with the Quality Standard for Imaging (QSI). This accreditation is the formal recognition that an imaging services provider has demonstrated that it has the organisational competence to deliver against key performance measures.
QSI is a scheme based on the principal of independent assessment against a recognised standard, very much based on the patient experience. The United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) has been selected to deliver and manage QSI on behalf of The College of Radiographers and The Royal College of Radiologists.
More information about the Scheme and how it works can be found on their website, click here.
ISO 9001:2015
Cobalt is ISO 9001:2015 certified and has held this accreditation since 1994. This is an international standard related to the quality management system, applicable to any organisation from all types of business sectors. The standard ensures a philosophy of continual improvement in all aspects of the business. We are externally assessed on an ongoing basis to ensure that these business practices are maintained.
The core principles of the standard are based on our customer focus, leadership, involvement of people, our approach to process, the system approach to management, continual improvement, fact-based decision making and mutually beneficial supplier relationship.
ISO 14001:2015
Cobalt is proud to be certified with the ISO 14001:2015 standard which assesses the impact of our activity on the world around us and provides sustainable solutions for the environment and the health and wellbeing of people.
Cyber Essentials Plus
Cobalt is Cyber Essentials Plus certified. Cyber Essentials helps us to guard against the most common cyber threats and demonstrates our commitment to cyber security. For more information, please visit the National Cyber Security Centre website.
Cobalt, being committed to providing the best possible health care allied to excellent service, will apply the Independent Sector Complaints Adjudication Service (ISCAS) Code of Practice to resolve all complaints it may receive from private patients. This is a three-stage process, with stage one being your complaint and our response. If dissatisfied with the response to your complaint, you will be offered stage two, which is an internal independent review of the complaints handling process by a named senior officer of the organisation, who has not been involved with the original complaint. If dissatisfied with the response from stage two, privately funded patients can request independent external adjudication from the Independent Healthcare Sector Complaints Adjudication Service (ISCAS) within 6 months of receiving Cobalt’s local resolution decision for more information about this service, please visit www.iscas.org.uk.
