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Everlight Radiology has been rated as outstanding by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), following an inspection of its London head office and reporting hub.

Written by Everlight News Desk

on Nov 21, 2019

The CQC inspection took place on 8 March and assessed the quality of Everlight’s service in terms of its safety, effectiveness, responsiveness and leadership. The “outstanding” rating is the highest possible overall assessment that England’s regulator of health and social care services can award.  

This ‘outstanding’ rating by the CQC on the first inspection of our new London site is a tremendous achievement and great external recognition of the work the entire Everlight team does day in, day out to support our clients and enable high quality patient care,” said Dr Dan Rose, Everlight’s Medical Director. “It is testament to the dedication and teamwork of everyone involved, recognises the value of our particular approach to Teleradiology, and reflects our commitment to innovation and continuous improvement”. 

Everlight Radiology is an established and fast-growing Teleradiology company which pioneers a unique “follow the sun reporting model. In practice this means locally trained and qualified Consultant Radiologists are relocated globally across different time zones to enable round-the-clock emergency radiology services to over 180 NHS sites across the UK. In addition, UK-based radiologists provide routine and day-time urgent reporting services during daylight hours. They work either from home or from one of Everlight’s multiple reporting hubs, of which London is the largest.   

Nigel Acheson, CQC Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals, referenced Everlight’s levels of flexibility innovation and collaboration in achieving the rating of outstanding. “The organization involved NHS clients in all aspects of service provision and provided highly tailored solutions based on their needs,” found Mr Acheson in the CQC report, published on 13 November. “All aspects of the service were available 24-hours, seven days a week with senior oversight available at all times… [and] all staff had a demonstrable, driven approach to improving standards for patients and clients.” 

Everlight’s internal peer-review process, whereby a minimum of 5% of reports are double-read, was also complimented in the CQC report for setting a benchmark for reporting quality in the absence of national standards for teleradiology reporting”. As was the company’s focus on working only daylight hours… to avoid the fatigue associated with night shift. 

“While I am not surprised, I am extremely proud that Everlight is the first and only Teleradiology company to be rated ‘Outstanding’ by the CQC,” says Daniel Sourial, Everlight’s UK CEO. “This feels like a ringing endorsement of the Everlight ethos: to improve the standard of patient care, provide ever faster and more accurate reports to our clients and to do so by ensuring our radiologists are the best resourced, informed and supported in the industry.”  

 

A full copy of the CQC inspection report can be seen here