One of only two NHS Trusts in the UK dedicated to women’s healthcare has implemented Q-Pulse in managing the safety and quality of their fertility services.

Birmingham Women’s NHS Foundation Trust provides healthcare services to women and men in the West Midlands and surrounding areas. The Hospital’s Assisted Conception Unit (ACU) provides a full range of fertility, gynaecology and obstetrics services.

In the UK, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act Regulations transpose the requirements of the EU Tissues and Cells Directives into law. To meet safety and quality standards for handling human tissues and cells, the Regulations require clinics and centres to have a formal quality system in place.

"We’ve found Q-Pulse to be a vital tool in developing and maintaining our Quality Management System," explains Dr Sue Avery, Director of the ACU. "By using all the available functionality in Q-Pulse, we’ve also found that it has acted as a guide to, as well as a framework for, the QMS.

"We began by using Q-Pulse principally as a document control system, but are now using it for process mapping, audit and control of suppliers. We find all these functions user friendly, and the use of Q-Pulse has saved us a great deal of time by avoiding having to develop systems from scratch.

"Since the EU Tissues and Cells Directives came into force, Fertility clinics and centres have had to bring their practice into line with requirements. Q-Pulse has eased the pain of the culture change we have had to undergo, and has made it relatively simple for “enthusiastic amateurs” to run a quality system."

Dr Avery concludes: "By helping us to put a more formal QMS in place within the Unit, Q-Pulse helps us to make sure that we can continue to provide high-quality, patient focused services, and can identify opportunities to further improve our QMS."