Thursday 31 January 2013

Service improvement in blood sciences


"The vision for the NHS pathology services puts patients first by providing services which are:

  • clinically excellent;
  • responsive to users;
  • cost effective; and
  • integrated."

Service improvement in blood sciences: how to improve quality, delivery and efficiency for laboratory providers and their customers
NHS Improvement - Diagnostics
January 2013

Read more here.

Tuesday 29 January 2013

Current and future needs for hospice care


"This report provides evidence on what is known and still needs to be known about patients’ and families’ needs for hospice care towards the end of life."

Current and future needs for hospice care: an evidence-based report
N Calanzani, IJ Higginson, B Gomes
January 2013

Read more here.

Quality in the new health system


"The NHS needs to embrace a culture of open and honest cooperation where individuals and organisations are transparent about the quality of care being provided to patients, and the whole system works collaboratively to share information, address concerns and raise standards."

Quality in the new health system: maintaining and improving quality from April 2013
Department of Health
January 2013

Monday 28 January 2013

Care management programs to reduce hospital admissions and readmissions


"Three case studies illustrate the potential of care management programs to address this problem by improving care coordination and transitions among high-risk patients."

Gaining ground: care management programs to reduce hospital admissions and readmissions among chronically ill and vulnerable patients
D McCarthy, A Cohen, M Bihrle Johnson
The Commonwealth Fund
January 2013

Read more here.

Closing the quality gap


"The overview describes the scope of the eight reports; describes the scope of the series by summarizing the quality levers, populations, interventions, outcomes, and other features across the reports; and discusses key messages by audience (patient/consumer/caregiver, health care professional, health care delivery organization, policymaker, and research community)."

Closing the quality gap: revisiting the state of the science
KA McDonald, C Chang, E Schultz
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
January 2013

Read more here.

Wednesday 23 January 2013

Design and use of performance measures to decrease low-value services and achieve cost-conscious care


"This paper gives an overview of performance measures that target low-value services to help physicians understand the strengths and limitations of these measures, provides specific examples of measures that assess use of low-value services, and discusses how these measures can be used in clinical practice and policy."

Design and use of performance measures to decrease low-value services and achieve cost-conscious care
DW Baker, A Qaseem, P Reynolds, LA Gardner, EC Schneider
Annals of Internal Medicine, 2013, 158(1):55-59

Read more here.

Leading networks in healthcare


"In response to the apparent increase in the number of networks operating in healthcare in the UK, and having reflected on its own work with networks, the Foundation undertook some scoping work to assess the situation. The aim was to test new techniques for supporting networks that encourage quality improvement."

Leading networks in healthcare
The Health Foundation
January 2013

Read more here.

Package of Innovation for managing kidney disease in primary care


"The Package includes training materials for Practice staff (slide sets/handouts/supporting notes) on the management of CKD, quality improvement techniques and how to facilitate patient self-management."

Package of Innovation for managing kidney disease in primary care
Kidney Research UK
2012

Read more here.

Diabetes Outcomes Versus Expenditure Tool (DOVE)


The Diabetes Outcomes Versus Expenditure (DOVE) tool allows users to compare expenditure on diabetes care with clinical outcomes for a selected Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), other CCGs with similar populations and all other CCGs.

Access the DOVE tool here.

Monday 21 January 2013

Possibilities and pitfalls for clinical leadership in improving service quality, innovation and productivity


"In general, clinical leadership was found to occur at multiple interlocking levels and the role of clinicians in shaping national policy should not be underestimated."

Possibilities and pitfalls for clinical leadership in improving service quality, innovation and productivity
J Storey, R Holti
National Institute for Health Research
January 2013

Read more here.

Friday 18 January 2013

Better use of information and technology in health and social care


"This report this highlights additional actions that could be taken to drive the  more efficient and effective use of information and technology, and identifies the benefits that could potentially be achieved by doing so."

A review of the potential benefits from the better use of information and technology in health and social care: final report
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
January 2013

Read more here.

Involving patients in improving safety


"An important learning point from the evidence scan is that patient engagement in improving safety is not solely about patients themselves, but also depends fundamentally on the attitudes and behaviours of health professionals and the extent to which the organisational climate and infrastructure is supportive."

Involving patients in improving safety
The Health Foundation
January 2013

Read more here.

Thursday 17 January 2013

Creating the evidence to support revalidation


"The aim of this project was to assess the value of Hospital Episode Statistics data for the purpose of revalidation."

Hospital episode statistics and revalidation: creating the evidence to support revalidation
A Johal, D Cromwell, J van der Meulen
Royal College of Surgeons, Academy of Medical Royal Colleges
January 2013

Read more here.

Patient experience and health outcomes


"Do patients' reports of their health care experiences reflect the quality of care? Despite the increasing role of such measures in research and policy, there's no consensus regarding their legitimacy in quality assessment."

The patient experience and health outcomes
MP Manary, W Boulding, R Staelin, SW Glickman
New England Journal of Medicine, 2013, 368:201-203

Read more here.

Wednesday 16 January 2013

Clinical-financial partnerships in the NHS


"The scale of the NHS’s financial challenges, which is predicted to last for the foreseeable future, has led to increasing acceptance that more sustainable and integrated strategies and approaches are urgently needed to successfully deliver the necessary efficiency savings and quality improvements."

Clinical-financial partnerships in the NHS: why we need them to deliver the cost and quality challenge
A Neath, N Downham, M Mugglestone
NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement
November 2012

Read more here.

Delivering the NHS Safety Thermometer CQUIN 2013/14


"The data from the NHS Safety Thermometer is powerful because it allows us, over time, to establish a baseline against which we can track improvement."

Delivering the NHS Safety Thermometer CQUIN 2013/14
NHS Harm Free Care
December 2012

Read more here.

Tuesday 15 January 2013

Preventable hospital mortality


"A quality improvement strategy based on good local evidence is effective in improving the quality of care sufficiently to reduce mortality."

Preventable hospital mortality: learning from retrospective case record review
OO Sorinola, C Weerasinghe, R Brown
Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine Short Reports, 2012, 3(11):77

Read more here.

Monday 14 January 2013

Better together: sharing learning to improve care


"This report follows an evaluation of NHS Kidney Care Learning Networks, and highlights good practice and learning with regard to what worked well within the learning networks, and why."

Better together: sharing learning to improve care
M Barclay
NHS Kidney Care
December 2012

Read more here.

Reducing unnecessary hospital days to improve quality of care through physician accountability


"Results indicate that a strategy, involving physician direct accountability, can reduce unnecessary hospital days."

Reducing unnecessary hospital days to improve quality of care through physician accountability: a cluster randomised trial
C Caminiti, et al.
BMC Health Services Research, 2013, 13:14

Read more here.

Joint commissioning in health and social care


"This study confirms the findings of numerous previous studies of patient and public involvement; that it is difficult, time consuming and fragile in the face of radical organisational or policy change."

Joint commissioning in health and social care: an exploration of definitions, processes, services and outcomes
H Dickinson, J Glasby, A Nicholds, S Jeffares, S Robinson, H Sullivan
National Institute for Health Research
January 2013

Read more here.

Commissioning guidance for specialist palliative care


"The purpose of this document is to provide commissioners with key information to help them commission specialist palliative care, as a specific component of the whole spectrum of palliative and end of life care service provision."

Commissioning guidance for specialist palliative care: helping to deliver commissioning objectives
Association for Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland, Consultant Nurse in Palliative Care Reference Group, Marie Curie Cancer Care, National Council for Palliative Care, and Palliative Care Section of the Royal Society of Medicine
December 2012

Read more here.

Measuring organizational and individual factors thought to influence the success of quality improvement in primary care


"For researchers and those evaluating continuous quality improvement in practice, this guidance should lessen the burden of locating relevant measures and may enhance the contribution their research makes by increasing the quality of measurement and the potential to synthesise findings across studies."

Measuring organizational and individual factors thought to influence the success of quality improvement in primary care: a systematic review of instruments
SE Brennan, M Bosch, H Buchan, SE Green
Implementation Science, 7:121

Read more here.

Toward performance and quality


Longwoods have published a special issue of Healthcare Quarterly, called "Toward performance and quality." Articles include:

  1. The journey toward high performance and excellent quality
  2. Clinicians as designers and leaders of quality improvement
  3. Bringing evidence to healthcare decision making
  4. Evidence and quality, practicalities and judgements: some experience from NICE


Access the full issue here.

Thursday 10 January 2013

Securing sustainable NHS services


"This work has concluded – as the Case for Applying the Regime for Unsustainable Providers did – that fundamental change is necessary not just at South London Healthcare NHS Trust, but across the broader south east London health economy, if sustainable services are to be secured (that is, services that provide a high quality of care, good levels of access and are affordable within the resources available to the NHS in south east London)."

Securing sustainable NHS services: the Trust Special Administrator's report on South London Healthcare NHS Trust and the NHS in south east London
Office of the Trust Special Administrator
Volume 1 of 3
January 2013

Read more here.

Moving toward a high performance health care system


"The Commission recommends a synergistic strategy that reflects the need to address health spending in both the public and private sectors, and to involve providers, consumers, and payers in improving system performance."

Confronting costs: stabilizing U.S. health spending while moving toward a high performance health care system 
The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System
January 2013

Read more here.

Wednesday 9 January 2013

Integrated care


QIPP Right Care has produced a reading list, highlighting key documents about integrated care.

Integrated care
N Pearce-Smith, JAM Gray
December 2012

Read more here.

Tuesday 8 January 2013

Shared decision making to improve care and reduce costs


"A 2011 Cochrane Collaborative review of 86 studies showed that as compared with patients who received usual care, those who used decision aids had increased knowledge, more accurate risk perceptions, reduced internal conflict about decisions, and a greater likelihood of receiving care aligned with their values."

Shared decision making to improve care and reduce costs
E Oshima Lee, EJ Emanuel
New England Journal of Medicine, 2013, 368(1):6-8

Read more here.

Advancing the science and practice of scale-up and spread in health


"Conference attendees identified and prioritized five recommendations (and corresponding sub-recommendations) for advancing scale-up and spread in health: increase awareness, facilitate information exchange, develop new methods, apply new approaches for evaluation, and expand capacity."

A stakeholder-driven agenda for advancing the science and practice of scale-up and spread in health
WE Norton, CJ McCannon, MW Schall, BS Mittman
Implementation Science, 2012, 7:118

Read more here.

Delivering Dilnot: paying for elderly care


"The Government needs to be clear in its message that a reformed capped funding system is the most appropriate way of dealing with a broken social care system, a crisis that has Delivering Dilnot lasted over ten years."

Delivering Dilnot: paying for elderly care
P. Burstow (editor)
CentreForum
January 2013

Read more here.

Wednesday 2 January 2013

Factors thought to influence the success of quality improvement in primary care


"This review aimed to provide guidance for researchers seeking to measure factors thought to modify the effect of Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) in primary care settings."

Measuring organizational and individual factors thought to influence the success of quality improvement in primary care: a systematic review
SE Brennan, M Bosch, H Buchan, SE Green
Implementation Science, 2012, 7:121

Read more here.

Progress in making NHS efficiency savings


"The Department considers that the NHS will have been successful in meeting the efficiency challenge if it continues to live within its budget and, as a minimum, maintains the quality of, and access to, healthcare."

Progress in making NHS efficiency savings
National Audit Office
December 2012

Read more here.


Developing operational delivery networks


"The NHS Commissioning Board (NHS CB) has recognised that clinical networks are an NHS success story and have been responsible for some significant and sustained improvements in the quality of patient care and the outcomes of their treatment."

Developing operational delivery networks: the way forward
NHS Commissioning Board
December 2012

Read more here.

Making integrated out-of-hospital care a reality


"This report discusses the foundations for integrated care for adults, children and young people, with a focus on implementing out-of-hospital care, and connecting primary, community and social care. It highlights key evidence and draws on learning from partners across health and social care."

Making integrated out-of-hospital care a reality
NHS Confederation
December 2012

Read more here.

Everyone counts: planning for patients 2013/14


"At a time of significant financial challenge, where we need to ensure all organisations are robust to address the challenges facing them, this document lays out five offers to help commissioners deliver for the public: support for routine NHS care seven days a week; greater transparency on outcomes; mechanisms to enhance patient feedback; better data collection to drive evidence-based medicine; and for high professional standards."

Everyone counts: planning for patients 2013/14
NHS Commissioning Board
December 2012

Read more here.


The Hospitals Pathways Programme - lessons learned


"This article tells the story of the Hospital Pathways Programme (HPP), a collaborative programme in which five acute trusts worked with The King’s Fund and the Health Foundation to apply techniques, not widely used in the NHS, to improve both processes of care and interactions between staff and patients."

The Hospitals Pathways Programme - lessons learned
The King's Fund
December 2012

Read more here.