Saturday 31 May 2014

A councillor's guide to the health system in England

"This guide provides:

  • a quick introduction to the health and social care system since the reforms of 2012 for all councillors who do not lead on health issues
  • a brief outline of the purpose of the reforms and how they are intended to improve health
  • a description of the different parts of the health system, national, regional and local their interrelationships with each other and with social care and the wider role of local government"


A councillor's guide to the health system in England
Local Government Association
May 2014

Read more here.

Supporting people to manage their health

"Patient activation is a unique concept that captures a patient’s knowledge, skills and confidence in managing their health and health care and the likelihood that they will put these into action."

Supporting people to manage their health: an introduction to patient activation
J Hibbard, H Gilburt
The King's Fund
May 2014

Read more here.

Mind the gap between recommendations and implementation

"Using the findings of incident investigations to improve patient safety management is well-established and mandatory under Swedish law. This study seeks to identify the mechanisms behind successful implementation of the recommendations of incident investigations."

Mind the gap between recommendation and implementation—principles and lessons in the aftermath of incident investigations: a semi-quantitative and qualitative study of factors leading to the successful implementation of recommendations
J Wrigstad, J Bergstrom, P Gustafson
BMJ Open, 2014, 4:e005326

Read more here.

Health inequalities in European cities

"More funding should be put towards academic research on effective universal policies, evaluation of their impact and training policymakers and officers on health inequalities in city governments."

Health inequalities in European cities: perceptions and beliefs among local policymakers
J Morrison, et al
BMJ Open, 2014, 4:e004454

Read more here.

The role of team climate in improving the quality of chronic care delivery

"The implementation of transition programmes requires a supportive and stimulating team climate to enhance the quality of chronic care delivery to chronically ill adolescents."

The role of team climate in improving the quality of chronic care delivery: a longitudinal study among professionals working with chronically ill adolescents in transitional care programmes
JM Cramm, MMH Strating, AP Nieboer
BMJ Open, 2014, 4:e005369

Read more here.

Improving the physical health of adults with serious mental illness

"The results showed considerable variation in the extent to which programs succeeded in integrating primary care and behavioral health care services."

Improving the physical health of adults with serious mental illness
DM Scharf, et al.
RAND Corporation

Read more here.

Spreading improvement ideas

"Based on a review of 477 studies, there is evidence that spreading good practice in local internal teams can be facilitated by targeting key individuals, providing focused and proactive training and internal marketing."

No. 20: Spreading improvement ideas: Tips from empirical research
D de Silva
The Health Foundation
May 2014

Read more here.

UK healthcare expertise

This is a collection of documents providing "information about the UK's different healthcare capabilities including case studies of successful overseas partnerships and projects with the UK."

Document titles include:

Using balanced metrics and mixed methods to better understand QI interventions

"Improving quality while maintaining or reducing costs requires balancing competing demands to bring value to healthcare."

Using balanced metrics and mixed methods to better understand QI interventions
PJ Kaboli, HJ Mosher
BMJ Quality and Safety, 2014, 23:437-439

Read more here.

Leadership: easier said than done

"While organisations are seen to be better at understanding leadership at the highest levels in the hierarchy, many are now seeking to devolve leadership down the line, expecting more junior managers and employees without managerial responsibility to treat the organisational agenda as their own."

Leadership: easier said than done
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
April 2014

Read more here.

Responding to service user involvement in mental health services

"The background to this report is the increasing policy emphasis on user involvement in health service planning and delivery, specifically in mental health, and theoretical frameworks concerned with organisational change and new social movements."

How do managers and leaders in the National Health Service and social care respond to service user involvement in mental health services in both its traditional and emergent forms? The ENSUE study
D Rose, M Barnes, M Crawford, E Omeni, D MacDonald, A Wilson
National Institute for Health Research
Health Services and Delivery Research, 2014, 2(10)

Read more here.

The Dementia Roadmap

"The Dementia Roadmap provides high quality information about the dementia journey alongside local information about services, support groups and care pathways to assist primary care staff to more effectively support people with dementia and cognitive impairment, their families and carers."

Access the Roadmap here.

Patients' right to choose any clinically appropriate provider

"This document sets out interim guidance to help commissioners, GPs and providers implement the new (1 April 2014) legal right for patients to choose any clinically appropriate provider of mental health services upon referral for a patient’s first outpatient appointment."

Interim guidance: Implementing patients' right to choose any clinically appropriate provider of mental health services
Publications Gateway Reference: 01594
NHS England
May 2014

Read more here.

Culture and leadership in the NHS

"To instil cultures of compassionate care throughout NHS organisations, our health service should model collective leadership, where everyone takes responsibility for the success of the organisation as a whole, not just for their own jobs or work area."

Culture and leadership in the NHS: The King's Fund 2014 survey
The King's Fund
May 2014

Read more here.

Measuring quality at a system level: an impossible task?

"The authors describe a highly consultative and iterative process used to measure quality across the continuum of care, and the challenges experienced in approaching this type of measurement, and they highlight some of the early findings."

Measuring quality at a system level: an impossible task? The Toronto Central LHIN experience
R Solomon, C Damba, S Bryant
Healthcare Quartely, 2013, 16(4):36-42

Read more here.

Behaviour change interventions to promote prescribing of generic drugs

"Based on the evidence, financial incentives with educational intervention and audit/feedback look promising but decision-makers should take into account the practicality and costs of the interventions before implementation."

Behaviour change interventions to promote prescribing of generic drugs: a rapid evidence synthesis and systematic review
T Moe-Byrne, D Chambers, M Harden, C McDaid
BMJ Open, 2014, 4:e004623

Read more here.

Doing challenging research studies in a patient-centred way

"Our study provided information to help ensure that a challenging trial was patient centred in its design."

Doing challenging research studies in a patient-centred way: a qualitative study to inform a randomised controlled trial in the paediatric emergency care setting
K Woolfall, et al.
BMJ Open, 2014, 4:e005045

Read more here.

Using social media and Internet data for public health surveillance

"More recently, ubiquitous and unstandardized data collected from the Internet have been used to gain insight into emerging disease events."

Using social media and Internet data for public health surveillance: the importance of talking
DM Hartley
The Milbank Quarterly, 2014, 92(1):34-39

Read more here.

Friday 30 May 2014

Looking forward to later life

"There are no major public institutions dedicated to providing early support and investment in later life, only health and social care which deal in crises."

Looking forward to later life: taking an early action approach to our ageing society
Community Links Early Action Task Force
2014

Read more here.

Patient empowerment: for better quality, more sustainable health services globally

"This report highlights some of the lessons and examples from this increasingly global patient empowerment movement. The primary focus is on the role of individuals in their own healthcare, although overlap with the equally important issues of public involvement in health and empowerment in social care are recognised."

Patient empowerment: for better quality, more sustainable health services globally
All Party Parliamentary Groups on Global Health
May 2014

Read more here.

The RSPH guide to commissioning for health improvement

"Commissioning for health improvement cannot be effective if issues are seen in silos but each service should be a strategic step towards a better, healthier society where health equity is seen as a matter of social justice."

The RSPH guide to commissioning for health improvement
Royal Society for Public Health
May 2014

Read more here.

Developing collective leadership for health care

"Leaders need to ensure that all staff adopt leadership roles in their work and take individual and collective responsibility for delivering safe, effective, high-quality and compassionate care for patients and service users."

Developing collective leadership for health care
M West, R Eckert, K Steward, B Pasmore
The King's Fund
2014

Read more here.

Transforming dementia care in hospitals

"All nine Trusts felt that organisations should invest in development programmes such as this to support improvements in the experience of care for people with dementia and their families."

RCN development programme: transforming dementia care in hospitals: evaluation report
University of Worcester Association for Dementia Studies, Royal College of Nursing
2014

Read more here.

Monday 5 May 2014

Measuring what really matters

"The paper describes the principles of person-centred care and the activities that a person-centred system should undertake in different contexts."

Measuring what really matters
A Collins
The Health Foundation
April 2014

Read more here.

Enabling better access to primary care for vulnerable populations

"This short report focuses on models of primary care that are designed to promote registration with and access to good primary and continuing care on an equitable basis."

Promising practice: enabling better access to primary care for vulnerable populations
Department of Health
April 2014

Read more here.

Inclusive practice

"The National Inclusion Health Board’s Data and Research Working Group identified the need for a literature review that encompasses, with respect to the 4 vulnerable groups (asylum seekers/refugees, Gypsies/Irish Travellers, people who are homeless, and sex workers): 
a) Interventions (or service models) that improve access to/registration in primary care; 
b) Interventions which have been shown to reduce the risk of inappropriate admission/readmission to hospital."

Inclusive practice: vulnerable migrants, gypsies and travellers, people who are homeless, and sex workers: a review and synthesis of interventions/service models that improve access to primary care and reduce risk of avoidable admission to hospital
PJ Aspinall
University of Kent
February 2014

Read more here.

Observational evidence and strength of evidence domains: case examples

"The cases highlighted in this paper demonstrate how observational studies may provide moderate- to (rarely) high-strength evidence in systematic reviews."

Observational evidence and strength of evidence domains: case examples
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
April 2014

Read more here.

'Practical' resources to support patient and family engagement in healthcare decisions

"This scoping review for patient/family engagement tools and guides is a good start for a resource inventory and can guide the content development of a patient engagement resource kit to be used by patients/families, healthcare providers and administrators."

'Practical' resources to support patient and family engagement in healthcare decisions: a scoping review
K Kovacs Burns, M Bellows, C Eigenseher, J Gallivan
BMC Health Services Research, 2014, 14:175

Read more here.

Strengthening the practice of health policy and systems research

"System change begins and ends with people because people, operating in various roles, ultimately make up any system and fundamentally shape how it works."

People-centred science: strengthening the practice of health policy and systems research
K Sheikh, A George, L Gilson
Health Research Policy and Systems, 2014, 12:19

Read more here.

Barriers and facilitators to evidence-use in program management

"This paper reviews the literature on barriers and facilitators to evidence-informed decision-making experienced by program management decision-makers within health care organizations."

Barriers and facilitators to evidence-use in program management: a systematic review of the literature
S Humphries, T Stafinski, Z Mumtaz, D Menon
BMC Health services Research, 2014, 14:171

Read more here.

Expanding the use of telehealth: promise and potential pitfalls

"Telehealth may improve access, but not always for the populations we expect."

Expanding the use of telehealth: promise and potential pitfalls
A Mehrotra
RAND corporation
May 2014

Read more here.

Comorbidities: a framework of principles for system-wide action

"Comorbidities are a helpful focus to bring different parts of the system together to address shared health concerns and prevent fragmentation."

Comorbidities: a framework of principles for system-wide action
Department of Health
April 2014

Read more here.

New commissioning guides from the National Surgical Commissioning Centre

The National Surgical Commissioning Centre has published the following two commissioning guides:

A framework for measuring and monitoring safety

"The purpose of this Practical guide is to support NHS organisations to apply a framework for measuring and monitoring safety."

Practical guide: a framework for measuring and monitoring safety
The Health Foundation
April 2014

Read more here.

The NHS Productivity Challenge

While it is true that there is also an increasing consensus around what makes a high-quality, sustainable health and care system, three inputs are needed to achieve this service and unlock the greater efficiency and improved outcomes it can offer:

  • more time
  • more money for transformational change and short-term support
  • measures to support change and value for money.

The NHS Productivity Challenge: experience from the front line
J Appleby, A Galea, R Murray
The King's Fund
May 2014

Read more here.

Local government briefings

"NICE has developed local government briefings for a range of different public health topics. These briefings are meant for local authorities and their partner organisations in the health and voluntary sectors, in particular those involved with health and wellbeing boards."

Read them here.

Managing patients with complex needs: London case study

"On both human and economic terms, supporting people the NHS has too often failed is an affordable and effective investment."

Managing patients with complex needs: evaluation of the City and Hackney Primary Care Psychotherapy Consultation Service
M Parsonage, E Hard, B Rock
Centre for Mental Health
April 2014

Read more here.

Examining and addressing evidence-practice gaps in cancer care

"While the number of publications investigating evidence-practice gaps in cancer care increased over a ten-year period, most studies continued to describe gaps between best evidence and clinical practice, rather than rigorously testing interventions to reduce the gap."

Examining and addressing evidence-practice gaps in cancer care: a systematic review
J Bryant, A Boyes, K Jones, R Sanson-Fisher, M Carey, R Fry
Implementation Science, 2014, 9:37

Read more here.

Well London’ and the benefits of participation

"Well London is a multicomponent community engagement and coproduction programme designed to improve the health of Londoners living in socioeconomically deprived neighbourhoods."

‘Well London’ and the benefits of participation: results of a qualitative study nested in a cluster randomised trial
J Derges, A Clow, R Lynch, S Jain, G Phillips, M Petticrew, A Renton, A Draper
BMJ Open, 2014, 4:e003596

Read more here.

Assessing the real-world data policy landscape for health and healthcare in Europe

"Real-world data (RWD) is an umbrella term for different types of data that are not collected in conventional randomised controlled trials. In the healthcare sector, RWD can be obtained from many sources and includes patient data, data from clinicians, hospital data, data from payers and social data."

Assessing the real-world data policy landscape for health and healthcare in Europe
C Miani, E Robin, V Horvath, C Manville, J Cave, J Chataway
RAND Europe
2014

Read more here.

Healing medical product innovation

"To spur inventors to create medical products that lower health care spending and promote health, policymakers need to address the perverse financial incentives that lead inventors and investors in the opposite direction."

Healing medical product innovation
S Garber, SM Gates, EB Keeler, ME Vaiana, AW Mulcahy, C Lau, AL Kellerman
RAND Corporation
2014

Read more here.

A new settlement for health and social care

"The solution, we believe, is to have a single, ring-fenced budget for health and social care which is singly commissioned, and within which entitlements are much more closely aligned."

A new settlement for health and social care: interim report
The King's Fund
2014

Read more here.