Friday 30 March 2012

Health and Social Care Bill

"This briefing focuses on several major amendments agreed during the Lords’ report stage relating to ministerial responsibility for the NHS, economic regulation and CCG conflicts of interest."

Parliamentary briefing: Health and Social Care Bill: Commons' consideration of Lords amendments
Nuffield Trust
March 2012

Read more here.

Guideline-based development of quality indicators

"For the efficient development of high-quality quality indicators, rigorous, approved, and evidence-based development methods are needed."

Methods for the guideline-based development of quality indicators - a systematic review
T Kotter, E Blozik, M Scherer
Implementation Science, 2012, 7:21

Read more here.

Producing synergy in collaborations

"This paper describes a Norwegian hospital’s nutrition innovation that enhanced collaboration across and within the hospital hierarchy."

Producing synergy in collaborations: a successful hospital innovation
L Corwin, JH Corbin, MB Mittelmark
The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal, 2012, 17(1):5

Read more here.

Putting people first through shared decision-making and collective involvement

"This paper explores what it really means to put people first when commissioning and providing services, and sets out what we know about the benefits."
Putting people first through shared decision-making and collective involvement
NHS Confederation
March 2012

Read more here.

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Self-management of diabetes in hospital

"The aim of the document is to improve the safety of the in hospital management of diabetes."

Self-management of diabetes in hospital
Joint British Diabetes Societies for Inpatient Care Group
March 2012

Read more here.

Monday 26 March 2012

Assessing how much confidence to place in the research evidence

In the third paper in a three-part series on health systems guidance, Simon Lewin and colleagues explore the importance of assessing how much confidence to place in different types of research evidence with regards to informing judgements regarding policy options to address health systems problems.

Guidance for evidence-informed policies about health systems: Assessing how much confidence to place in the research evidence
S Lewin, et al.
PLoS Medicine, 9(3):e1001187

Read more here.

Friday 23 March 2012

National evaluation of the Department of Health's integrated care pilots

"This report is the final output of a two-year, real-time evaluation of the Department of Health (DH) Integrated Care Pilots (ICPs)."

National evaluation of the Department of Health's integrated care pilots
RAND Europe, Ernst & Young LLP
March 2012

Read more here.

Thursday 22 March 2012

Sustainable health and social care

"Evidence suggests that adopting various measures could generate considerable cost savings for the health and social care sector, as well as reducing its environmental impacts."

Sustainable health and social care: connecting environmental and financial performance
C Naylor, J Appleby
The King's Fund
March 2012

Read more here.

Patient safety, satisfaction, and quality of hospital care

"Improvement of hospital work environments might be a relatively low cost strategy to improve safety and quality in hospital care and to increase patient satisfaction."

Patient safety, satisfaction, and quality of hospital care: cross sectional surveys of nurses and patients in 12 countries in Europe and the United States
LH Aiken, et al
British Medical Journal, 2012, 344:e1717

Read more here.

Improving performance on the AHRQ quality indicators

"This toolkit is a general guide to using improvement methods with a particular focus on the Quality Indicators from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality."

Access the guide here.

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Scorecard on local health system performance

"The first-ever Scorecard on Local Health System Performance provides U.S. communities with comparative data to assess the performance of their health care systems, establish priorities for improvement, and set achievement targets."

Rising to the challenge: results from a scorecard on local health system performance
The Commonwealth Fund
March 2012

Read more here.

Rationale for and challenges of guidance development

"This is one paper in a three-part series that sets out how evidence should be translated into guidance to inform policies on health systems and improve the delivery of clinical and public health interventions."

Guidance for evidence-informed policies about health systems: rationale for and challenges of guidance development
X Bosch-Capblanch, et al.
PLoS Medicine, 2012, 9(3):e1001185

Read more here.

Linking guidance development to policy development

"In the second paper in a three-part series on health systems guidance, John Lavis and colleagues explore the challenge of linking guidance development and policy development at global and national levels."

Guidance for evidence-informed policies about health systems: linking guidance development to policy development
JN Lavis, et al.
PLoS Medicine, 2012, 9(3):e1001186

Read more here.

Bringing networks to life

"This document aims to help all paediatricians across the UK contribute to the development of effective networked care and thus deliver the highest quality care to their patients."

Bringing networks to life: an RCPCH guide to implementing clinical networks
Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
March 2012

Read more here.

How quality improvement collaboratives shape practice change

"QICs offer a potentially powerful way of disseminating health care innovations through enhanced strategies for learning and change."

More black box to explore: How quality improvement collaboratives shape practice change
EK Shaw, SM Chase, J Howard, PA Nutting, BF Crabtree
Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 25(2):149-157

Read more here.

Appropriate use of screening and diagnostic tests to foster high-value, cost-conscious care

"The overuse of some screening and diagnostic tests is an important component of unnecessary health care costs."

Appropriate use of screening and diagnostic tests to foster high-value, cost-conscious care
A Qaseem, et al.
Annals of Internal Medicine, 156(2):147-149

Read more here.

Allied Health Professionals' QIPP Toolkits

"The Strategic Health Authority Allied Health Professionals (AHP) Leads for England have worked with NHS London to compile AHP QIPP Toolkits, designed to help commissioners design services that are of high quality whilst reducing cost."

Access the toolkits below:

Thursday 15 March 2012

An economic case for involvement

"Meaningful involvement and shared decision making with patients and the public is a key enabler to improvements in quality, innovation, productivity and performance."

An economic case for involvement
InHealth Associates, Frontline, Department of Health
March 2012

Read more here.

Access the free decision support tool here.

Wednesday 14 March 2012

Health policy and systems research

"The Reader provides guidance on the defining features of HPSR and the critical steps in conducting research in this field."

Health policy and systems research: A methodology
Edited by Lucy Gilson
Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, World Health Organization
2012

Read more here.

Paving the way

"High quality education and learning are critical to the delivery of excellence in health and social care, and this is now seen as a core part of NHS business."

Paving the way
Royal Society for Public Health
January 2012

Read more here.

Reform: The next ten years

This collection of 73 essays on the next ten years of UK government, economy and public services, has been published by the independent think tank Reform.

Reform: The next ten years
Edited by Nick Seddon
Reform
2012

Read more here.

NHS Atlas of Variation in Healthcare for Children and Young Adults

"For the first time, variations across the breadth of child health services provided by NHS England are presented together to allow clinicians, commissioners and service users to identify priority areas for improving outcome, quality and productivity."

NHS Atlas of Variation in Healthcare for Children and Young Adults
Right Care Programme, in collaboration with the Child and Maternal Health Observatory
March 2012

Find out more here.

Access the online version here.

Opening up healthcare innovation

"Innovative solutions for a 21st century healthcare system."

Opening up healthcare innovation
J Bessant, C Kunne, K Moslein
Advanced Institute of Management Research
February 2012

Read more here.

A qualitative study of stakeholder views of the conditions for and outcomes of successful clinical networks

"This study provides new knowledge on the conditions needed to establish successful clinical networks and on desirable outcomes arising from network projects and initiatives that are considered to be valuable by those working in or associated with clinical networks."

A qualitative study of stakeholder views of the conditions for and outcomes of successful clinical networks
E McInnes, S Middleton, G Gardner, M Haines, M Haertsch, CL Paul, P Castaldi
BMC Health Services Research, 2012, 12:49

Read more here.

Friday 9 March 2012

Personal experiences, public value: changing relationships in the NHS

"Intended to stimulate discussion, this paper is the first in a series looking at interactions between the NHS, individuals and communities. A further four papers in the run up to the 2012 NHS Confederation annual conference and exhibition will explore:
  • putting people first through shared decision-making
  • information and the power paradigm
  • micro-enterprises and building community assets
  • building social value within the system and society."
An uneasy consensus: patients, citizens and the NHS: Paper 1: Personal experiences, public value: changing relationships in the NHS
NHS Confederation
February 2012

Read more here.

Thursday 8 March 2012

Updated guidance on the diagnosis and reporting of Clostridium Difficile

"This revised guidance to healthcare providers identifies which two types of tests, which when used in combination, will deliver the most accurate results for C. difficile infection testing."

Updated guidance on the diagnosis and reporting of Clostridium Difficile
Department of Health
March 2012

Read more here.

Review of the evidence on falls prevention in hospitals

"To facilitate the development of a hospital falls prevention resource guide, we systematically reviewed and documented the existing evidence base for interventions to prevent falls in hospitals, provided an overview of the performance of existing tools with known measurement properties, and compiled available online resources."

Review of the evidence on falls prevention in hospitals: task 4 final report
S Hempel, S Newberry, Z Wang, PG Shekelle, R Shanman, B Johnsen, T Perry, D Saliba, DA Ganz
February 2012

Read more here.

Tuesday 6 March 2012

'Harm free' care

This initiative is the national roll out of the pilot Safety Express QIPP programme. 'Harm free' care is defined by the absence of pressure ulcers, falls, urinary catheters, and venous thromboembolism, and this collection of resources and case studies has been developed to reduce these incidents.

Find out more and access all the resources here.

eLearning resources to improve patient care

The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement has formed a joint venture with Virtual College to develop the Productives e-learning suite. This suite is designed for staff, team leaders, programme managers and leaders to help them use The Productive Series: Releasing Time to Care (TM) programme.

Read more here.

eLearning for Healthcare has developed "e-learning for Harm Free Care", an online educational resource designed to support frontline teams in delivering harm free care, as defined by an absence of four common harms: pressure ulcers, harm from falls, catheter acquired urinary tract infections (CaUTI) and venous thromboembolism (VTE).

Find out more here.

NHS Better Care, Better Value Indicators

Better Care Better Value indicators identify potential areas for improvement in efficiency, which may include commissioners re-designing and shifting services away from the traditional setting of the hospital and out towards community based care.

View the indicators here.

Medical Leadership Competency Framework - self-assessment tool

The NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement has developed a new version of the self assessment tool, which is linked to the Medical Leadership Competency Framework (MLCF), for doctors and medical students to review their leadership skills.

Access the tool here.

Understanding professional partnerships and non-hierarchical organisations

"The aim of this research was to strengthen the evidence base for decisions about what kinds of partnerships and non-hierarchical organisations the NHS should incorporate or commission."

Understanding professional partnerships and non-hierarchical organisations
R Sheaff, S Childs, J Schofield, S Pickard, R Mannion
National Institute for Health Research
February 2012

Read more here.

Friday 2 March 2012

Transforming end of life care in acute hospitals

"This 'how to' guide aims to help clinicians, managers and directors implement The route to success in end of life care more effectively, drawing on valuable learning from the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement's Productive Ward: Releasing time to care (TM) series."

Transforming end of life care in acute hospitals: the route to success 'how to' guide
National End of Life Care Programme
February 2012

Read more here.

King's Fund Briefing: Health and Social Care Bill

"This briefing focuses on the implications of the Health and Social Care Bill for service reconfigurations and for the failure regime for providers that are financially unsustainable."

King's Fund Briefing: Health and Social Care Bill
The King's Fund
February 2012

Read more here.

Healthy competition

"This report presents ten case studies of successful health reform. Each case study shows how a radical change in the delivery of healthcare can result in improved quality and productivity."

Healthy competition
T Cawston, A Haldenby, N Seddon
Reform
February 2012

Read more here.

Thursday 1 March 2012

Developing excellence in cancer networks

"The ultimate role of cancer networks should be to support commissioners and providers to drive up improvements in outcomes and experiences for cancer patients in their area."

Developing excellence in cancer networks: a report from the Cancer Campaigning Group
Cancer Campaigning Group
February 2012

Read more here.

Shared decision making - the pinnacle of patient-centred care

"If we can view the health care experience through the patient's eyes, we will become more responsive to patients' needs and, thereby, better clinicians."

Shared decision making - the pinnacle of patient-centred care
MJ Barry, S Edgman-Levitan
New England Journal of Medicine, 2012, 366:780-781

Read more here.