Last month Beaumond House Community Hospice completed a 98 page self-assessment schedule and submitted it to Macmillan to apply for their Quality Environment Mark (MQEM). Two volunteers Ruth and Lesley led work with input from key members of staff to complete the schedule and flagged up where improvements could be put in place prior to completing the submission. This was followed by an assessment visit in April.
The Macmillan Quality Environment Mark (MQEM) is a detailed quality framework used for assessing whether cancer care environments meet the standards required by people living with cancer. The MQEM standards were developed in collaboration with over 400 people living with cancer and with numerous stakeholders, including the Department of Health. By 2015 the MQEM programme had completed over 250 assessments.
The programme is ongoing and the award lasts for three years. In meeting the MQEM standards, organisations such as Beaumond House are demonstrating to users of services that environments are:
welcoming and accessible to all
respectful of people's privacy and dignity
supportive to users' comfort and well-being
giving choice and control to people using your service
listening to the voice of the user.
Louise Sinclair, Head of Clinical Services at Beaumond House Community Hospice said “I am very pleased that we have achieved the accreditation for having the quality of environment required. Although this is particularly aimed at cancer services it inevitably benefits all people who visit or stay with at Beaumond House including, patients and families, visitors, staff and volunteers”.