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?:

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 succ...