Essential Process and Standards Documentation

Here we have provided a number of helpful materials to guide you through the IRM’s process, explain the roles of the reviewers, and show you what some of the key documents you will be working with look like.

Key process documents

• The invited review handbook
  The purpose of this document is to provide regulations and guidance for the healthcare organisations commissioning invited reviews. It sets out the processes that will normally be followed by the RCS when undertaking invited reviews.
• Clinical reviewer roles and responsibilities
  This includes a job description and person specification for the role of the IRM clinical reviewer.
• Lay reviewer roles and responsibilities
  This includes a job description and person specification for the role of the IRM lay reviewer.
• Good practice for reviewers
  A number of points describing good practice for reviewers have been developed by members of our review panel at previous Reviewer Update Days. These cover conducting interviews, gathering information, and managing the feedback given to interviewees and the organisation commissioning the review.

Sample IRM documentation

• Deed of indemnity form
  The healthcare organisation commissioning the invited review is required to indemnify the College, the Association and the reviewers in undertaking the review by signing a Deed of Indemnity. All of the reviewers will also be asked to sign a copy of this document in advance of the review visit.
• Conflict of interest declaration
  All reviewers appointed to participate in a review will be asked to sign this form to confirm they have considered whether they are aware of any conflict of interest that may disqualify them from undertaking the review and to identify any such conflicts to us.
• Interview template
  The IRM team has created this template for you to use as a helpful way of structuring your notes.
• Clinical record review template
  This is a structured template to assist our clinical reviewers in their review of patient’s clinical records.
• Invited review visit timetable
  In order to give you an idea of how a review visit is typically structured and how the timing of interviews usually works; we have prepared this sample review visit timetable. Obviously this is just an example, and each and every review visit runs differently, according the terms of the review and the number of staff involved.
• Invited review visit documentation list
  For each invited review we ask the commissioning organisation to submit a set of documentation to provide information about the service or individual surgeon under review as well as the background to any concerns. This document provides an example of the sort of documentation that we would expect to receive, although the items included will vary in each and every case.
• Review report template
  Following a review visit we use this review report template to present all of the information the review team has gathered along with their conclusions and recommendations. This helps to maintain a structured and consistent presentation amongst all of our reports. We have provided a blank copy of the template here to allow you to familiarise yourself with the layout and the different sections of one of our reports.