Thursday 26 March 2015

Acute hospitals and integrated care: from hospitals to health systems

"If the health and social care system is to respond to the changing needs of the population, and also address the financial challenges it faces, acute hospitals will need to play a fundamentally different role within local health economies."

Acute hospitals and integrated care: From hospitals to health system
C Naylor, H Alderwick, M Honeyman
The King's Fund
March 2015

Read more here.

The NHS under the coalition government

These two reports, published by The King's Fund look at how well the NHS has performed under the coalition government:

Monday 23 March 2015

Procurement and competition rules: Can the NHS be exempted?

"An incoming government could make broader changes to policy and the system architecture of the NHS that would ensure that commissioners and public sector providers were rarely subject to these rules in practice."

Procurement and competition rules: Can the NHS be exempted?
B Collins
The King's Fund
March 2015

Read more here.

Equal measures: Equality information report for 2014

"We know that health and social care services will only provide good quality care for all people if attention is paid to equality – and so we must also pay attention to this in regulation. The continued delivery of our human rights approach, based on embedding equality into our mainstream regulatory strategy, policy and practice, will help us to do this over the next few years."

Equal measures: Equality information report for 2014
Care Quality Commission
March 2015

Read more here.

Building primary care in a changing Europe

"It is expected that primary care can help health systems become more responsive to changing health needs; offer more integrated care delivery; and increase the efficiency of the system overall."

Building primary care in a changing Europe
DS Kringos, WGW Boerma, A Hutchinson, RB Saltman (eds)
World Health Organization
March 2015

Read more here.

Tackling the myths about outcomes in health

"Outcomes-based approaches to planning, organising and measuring the performance of healthcare offer new opportunities to tackle variation, improve cost-effectiveness and, most importantly, put patients first."

Outcomes based approaches to healthcare: Tackling the myths about outcomes in health
Outcomes based healthcare
March 2015

Read more here.

Improving mental health in children and young people

"With better data, transparency and accountability, the value of investment in mental wellbeing and care for child and young people can, and we believe will, be demonstrated and justified."

Future in mind: Promoting, protecting and improving our children and young people's mental health and wellbeing
Department of Health, NHS England
March 2015

Read more here.

Blending quality improvement and implementation research methods to study healthcare innovations

"Researchers evaluating change initiatives and healthcare organizations implementing improvement initiatives may benefit from a Learning Evaluation approach."

Learning Evaluation: blending quality improvement and implementation research methods to study healthcare innovations
BA Balasubramanian, et al.
Implementation Science, 2015, 10:31

Read more here.

Debt financing of breakthrough treatments

"Debt-financing schemes for breakthrough pharmaceutical products might offer a win-win-win for patients, payers, and manufacturers. Patients would obtain access to medicines; payers could ensure such access while remaining fiscally prudent. For pharmaceutical companies, entering into such a scheme would clearly be a better business and public relations strategy than fighting discounts and coverage denials."

Borrowing for the cure: Debt financing of breakthrough treatments
S Mattke, E Hoch
RAND Corporation
March 2015

Read more here.

A Darwinian proposal for health policy and systems research

"We propose that selective ‘breeding’ through successive evaluations of and selection among implementation strategies is a metaphor that health system thinkers can use to improve health care."

Evaluation as evolution: a Darwinian proposal for health policy and systems research
AL Martiniuk, S Abimbola, M Zwarenstein
Health Research Policy and Systems, 2015, 13:15

Read more here.

Access to hospital care - is the NHS on target?

"This briefing is the fourth in our series – it focuses on access to hospital services in the English NHS and assesses performance against six key waiting time targets. It looks at how national performance has changed over the course of this parliament and if targets are still being met.

Previous briefings in the series examined: the state of general practice; rationing in health care; and the reasons behind the ‘crisis’ in A&E."

Access to hospital care - is the NHS on target?
H Dorning, I Blunt
Nuffield Trust
March 2015

Read more here.

IDEAL: A framework for evaluations of surgical innovations

"IDEAL is a framework for evaluations of surgical innovations. First, there is an Idea or Innovation, which then undergoes Development and Exploration, and subsequently Assessment and Long-term Studies."

Find out more about the IDEAL Collaboration here.

Why staff health matters to patient care

"This report by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), entitled Work and wellbeing in the NHS: why staff health matters to patient care, sets out why it is in the best interests of both patients and NHS organisations for the health, wellbeing and engagement of the NHS workforce to be prioritised."

Work and wellbeing in the NHS: Why staff health matters to patient care
Royal College of Physicians
March 2015

Read more here.

Impact on local government and poorer communities

"This report focuses in particular on the impacts on poorer households and communities, and seeks to identify some key messages for policymakers that would enable the process to continue in a way that minimises harm and has most chance of delivering savings in a manner that supports more efficient and more effective local government services."

The cost of the cuts: The impact on local government and poorer communities
A Hastings, N Bailey, G Bramley, M Gannon, D Watkins
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
March 2015

Read more here.

Practical guide to engaging with health and wellbeing boards

"The purpose of this guide is to provide a consolidated overview of how Health and Wellbeing Boards are working, and outline practical steps for voluntary sector organisations looking to engage with HWBs based on this knowledge.

This briefing is part of a series on engaging with new local government bodies. If you find this resource useful, have a look at the rest of the series, which covers clinical commissioning groups  police and crime commissioners (due late March 2015) and local enterprise
partnerships (due April 2015)."

Practical guide to engaging with health and wellbeing boards
N Depani
Compact Voice
March 2015

Read more here.

Why social care matters: The next five years

"This document sets out the distinctive role and value of social care in the 21st century, when we are living longer, often with multiple health conditions that need a focus on the whole person and not just a single disease."

Distinctive, valued, personal: Why social care matters: The next five years
Directors of Adult Social Services
March 2015

Read more here.

Internet-based chlamydia screening: guidance for commissioning

"This document provides guidance specifically to assist the commissioning of chlamydia screening that is accessed by young people using the internet. The advice provided can be adapted to suit local circumstances and provides suggested sections that commissioners may wish to include in their contracts with providers of internet-based chlamydia screening."

Internet-based chlamydia screening: guidance for commissioning
Public Health England
March 2015

Read more here.

Taking the temperature of health and care services for people living with long term conditions

"The benefit of local decision-making is that services can be designed to meet the needs of local communities. However, this has to be backed with the right funding, incentives and regulation to ensure commissioners and providers can do the right thing for patients and are held to account for results they achieve."

Vital signs: Taking the temperature of health and care services for people living with long term conditions
The Richmond Group of Charities
March 2015

Read more here.

Tuesday 17 March 2015

Research activity and the association with mortality

"Research active Trusts had lower risk-adjusted mortality for acute admissions, which persisted after adjustment for staffing and other structural factors."

Research activity and the association with mortality
BA Ozdemir, et al.
PLoS One, 2015, 10(2):e0118253

Read more here.

Sunday 8 March 2015

Barriers to improvement in the NHS

"Every day, teams within the NHS strive to make things better, but individual, organisational and system-wide barriers get in the way. This evidence scan compiles published research about the key barriers to improvement in the NHS."

What's getting in the way? Barriers to improvement in the NHS: Evidence scan no. 24
D de Silva
The Health Foundation
February 2015

Read more here.

Accelerating change in the NHS

"Despite recent policies to devolve power, England’s health service remains centralised, and national bodies still have a pervasive influence on local services. This report describes three broad types of approach to effect change."

Constructive comfort: accelerating change in the NHS
C Allcock, F Dormon, R Taunton, J Dixon
The Health Foundation
February 2015

Read more here.

Read the supplementary report, Transformational change in NHS providers, here and view the infographic here.

Public attitudes to the NHS

"This report analyses the results of a series of questions about the NHS that were included in the 2014 British Social Attitudes Survey, undertaken by NatCen Social Research. The survey took place in late summer/early autumn 2014 and 2,878 adults from across Great Britain were surveyed."

Public attitudes to the NHS: An analysis of responses to questions in the British Social Attitudes Survey
B Gershlick, A Charlesworth, E Taylor
The Health Foundation
February 2015

Read more here and view the accompanying slidepack here.

Building the foundations for improvement

"The report draws out some key lessons from the trusts’ improvement journeys which will be useful for organisations that are considering building improvement capability at scale. It also provides a useful checklist of points for organisations to consider before planning, designing and delivering an improvement capability building programme."

Building the foundations for improvement: How five UK trusts built quality improvement capability at scale within their organisations
B Jones, T Woodhead
February 2015

Read more here.

A 'one-stop shop' for research evidence about health systems

"Researchers and research funding agencies can use Health Systems Evidence to identify gaps in the current stock of research evidence and domains that could benefit from primary research, systematic reviews, and review overviews."

Developing and refining the methods for a 'one-stop shop' for research evidence about health systems
JN Lavis, et al.
Health Research Policy and Systems, 2015, 13:10

Read more here.

Organizational culture change in U.S. hospitals

Leadership Saves Lives (LSL) is a novel longitudinal intervention study which looks at the process of promoting hospital organizational culture change.

Organizational culture change in U.S. hospitals: a mixed methods longitudinal intervention study
EL Linnander, AL Brewster, H Ting, HM Krumholz, EH Bradley
Implementation Science, 2015, 10:29

Read more here.

Efficient and effective policy responses for complex public health problems

"Simulation modelling used for policy analysis offers promise in being able to better operationalise research evidence to support decision making for complex problems, improve targeting of public health policy, and offers a foundation for strengthening relationships between policy makers, stakeholders, and researchers."

A modelling tool for policy analysis to support the design of efficient and effective policy responses for complex public health problems
JA Atkinson, A Page, R Wells, A Milat, A Wilson
Implementation Science, 2015, 10:26

Read more here.

Planning for the Better Care Fund

"The initial planning for the £5.3 billion Better Care Fund was deeply flawed..... The Departments and NHS England redesigned the Fund and asked local areas to submit revised plans in September 2014. The latest plans suggest that local areas expect to pool £5.3 billion and save £532 million in 2015–16."

Planning for the Better Care Fund: Thirty-seventy report of session 2014-15
House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts
The Stationery Office Limited
February 2015

Read more here.

Prescribed Specialised Services Advisory Group (PSSAG)

"PSSAG is a Department of Health expert committee that was established in 2013 to provide ongoing advice to Ministers on whether services are specialised and should be nationally commissioned by NHS England, rather than locally commissioned by Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs)."

Prescribed Specialised Services Advisory Group (PSSAG): Recommendations to Ministers
Department of Health
March 2015

Read more here.

Improving experiences of care

"The National Quality Board (NQB) has developed a shared understanding of what we mean by:

  • experience of care;
  • why it’s important; and
  • a good experience of care."

Improving experiences of care: Our shared understanding and ambition
National Quality Board
January 2015

Read more here.

E-learning: Introduction to commissioning for providers

"Introduction to commissioning for providers charts the changes to the commissioning process, introduces the building blocks of commissioning and explains how they can be used to provide better services."

This cost provides 1 hour CPD and costs £25 for 6 months access.

Find out more here.

A guide to special measures

"This guide, developed jointly by CQC, Monitor and NHS TDA, describes how the special measures programme works for NHS trusts and foundation trusts. It explains:

  • why trusts are placed in special measures
  • what will happen to trusts during special measures
  • the roles and responsibilities of key organisations involved
  • when and how trusts will exit special measures."

A guide to special measures
Monitor, Care Quality Commission, Trust Development Authority
Updated February 2015

Read more here.

Value of health information technology (HIT)

"The authors present a conceptual framework for measuring HIT value and propose a checklist of characteristics that should be considered in HIT evaluation studies. The framework consists of 3 key principles: 1) value includes both costs and benefits; 2) value accrues over time; and 3) value depends on which stakeholder’s perspective is used."

The value of health information technology: Filling the knowledge gap
RS Rudin, et al.
American Journal of Managed Care, 2014, (11Spec No. 17):eSP1-eSP8

Read more here.

Facilitating large-scale implementation of evidence based health care

"The findings provide prospective empirical data on the large scale implementation of EBHC [evidence based health care] in primary care and community based organisations focusing on resources and processes involved. Detailed evidence shows facilitation is context dependent and that ‘one size does not fits all’."

Facilitating large-scale implementation of evidence based health care: insider accounts from a co-operative inquiry
H Waterman, et al.
BMC Health Services Research, 2015, 15:60

Read more here.

Cost of hospital-acquired complications for older people with and without dementia

"Advances in models of care, nurse skill-mix and healthy work environments show promise in prevention of these complications for dementia and non-dementia patients."

The cost of hospital-acquired complications for older people with and without dementia: a retrospective cohort study
K Bail, et al.
BMC Health Services Research, 2015, 15:91

Read more here.

What's behind the A&E 'crisis'?

"This briefing, part of a series from the Nuffield Trust ahead of the General Election, examines up-to-date data and long-term trends with regard to urgent care in England; analyses common theories and explanations of recent problems; and summarises current thinking about the potential solutions."

Policy Briefing: What's behind the A&E 'crisis'?
I Blunt, N Edwards, L Merry
Nuffield Trust
March 2015

Read more here.