Tuesday 13 September 2016

Four case studies to explore the added value of Oxford AHSN

"The Oxford Academic Health Science Network (Oxford AHSN) wishes to demonstrate the value of the various projects and programmes that the network has developed and implemented since it was established in 2013. In order to do this, OHE Consulting and RAND Europe conducted analyses of four case study projects:

  1. Anxiety & Depression Clinical Network: A targeted 5% improvement in recovery rates
  2. Maternity Clinical Network: Improving referral pathways for preterm babies
  3. Energy project: Quantifying the value of energy savings and carbon reduction
  4. Intermittent Pneumatic Compression: Increasing utilisation of IPCs in immobile stroke patients"

Four case studies to explore the added value of Oxford AHSN
G Marsden, A Martin, B Zamora, J Exley, J Sussex, A Towse
Office of Health Economics
September 2016

Download the publication here.

Monday 12 September 2016

How is the NHS performing?

"This is the 20th report and aims to take stock of what has happened over the past quarter and to assess the state of the health and care system. It provides an update on how the NHS is coping as it continues to grapple with productivity and reform challenges under continued financial pressure."

How is the NHS performing? September 2016: Quality Monitoring report
R Murray, J Jabbal, J Thompson, D Maguire
The King's Fund
September 2016

Read more here.

Understanding quality in district nursing services

"This report investigates what ‘good’ district nursing care looks like from the perspective of people receiving this care, unpaid carers and district nursing staff and puts forward a framework for understanding the components involved. It also looks at the growing demand–capacity gap in district nursing and the worrying impact that this is having on services, the workforce and the quality and safety of patient care. The report makes recommendations to policy-makers, regulators, commissioners and provider organisations as to how to start to address these pressures."

Understanding quality in district nursing services: Learning from patients, carers and staff
J Maybin, A Charles, M Honeyman
The King's Fund
September 2016

Read more here.

The accompanying quality framework for district nursing is available here.

Sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) explained

"Sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) were announced in the NHS planning guidance published in December 2015. NHS organisations in different parts of the country have been asked to come together to develop ‘place-based plans’ for the future of health and care services in their area. Draft plans were submitted in June 2016, and final plans are expected to be completed in October."

Sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) explained
The King's Fund
August 2016

Read more here.

Sustainability and Transformation Plans: What we know so far

"This discussion paper reflects the work in progress from one third of STP areas, as captured in July and August 2016. It shows that the scale of the STP process is large and ambitious, and the speed with which plans are being pulled together is astonishing. So far, the plans are not sufficient to close the funding gap, but, if implemented well and combined with high-quality local efficiency improvement, they would go some way to doing so and would demonstrate the capability of the NHS and social care system to deliver. This paper points to some important trends, ideas to be explored and issues that need to be resolved in order to ensure success."

Sustainability and Transformation Plans: What we know so far
N Edwards
Nuffield Trust
September 2016

Read more here.

Why the NHS needs a quality improvement strategy: Chris Ham in conversation with Don Berwick

"Don Berwick is an International Visiting Fellow at The King’s Fund. He led a review into patient safety for David Cameron in 2013, and is recognised as an authority on health care improvement. Chris Ham asks him why he thinks that now is the right time for a quality improvement strategy."

Read the Q & A from the King's Fund here.

The NHS if

"‘The NHS if’ is a collection of essays that explores hypothetical scenarios and their impact on the future of health and care. The King's Fund are asking a small number of experts – some of them members of staff at The King’s Fund and others external experts in their fields – to write short essays that consider ‘what if’ questions about health and care in England. We’ll be publishing these essays on this website throughout 2016.

The aim is to encourage new thinking and debate about possible future scenarios that could fundamentally change health and care. The essays cover three themes: the NHS and society; medicine, data and technology; and how the NHS works."

Read more here.

Clinical commissioning: GPs in charge?

"Clinically led approaches to planning and designing health services are more likely to be both innovative and effective. For this reason, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were set up to put GPs at the heart of NHS planning decisions. What progress have CCGs made in implementing their clinically led model and what more needs to be done? This report looks at what has been learnt – including strategies to overcome challenges and identification of the main barriers to effective involvement – and makes recommendations for the future. Its findings about clinical involvement are relevant not only to policy-makers and CCGs but also to other organisations across the NHS involved in planning and designing services."

Clinical commissioning: GPs in charge?
R Robertson, S Ross, C Naylor, H Holder, S Machaqueiro
The King's Fund
July 2016

Read more here.

Deficits in the NHS 2016

"This briefing draws on data from our quarterly monitoring reports, secondary research and interviews with health care leaders to consider commissioner and provider finances in the round and to provide an overview of the factors that have led to the NHS going into deficit. It goes on to outline some of the strategies being employed to restore financial balance, before drawing together our thoughts on the implications of these strategies for the NHS this year and in the longer term."

Deficits in the NHS 2016
P Dunn, H McKenna, R Murray
The King's Fund
July 2016

Read more here.

Patients as partners

"More collaborative relationships among health and care professionals, patients, service users, carers and communities are essential for the future of the NHS, but what helps to build effective relationships? This guide stems from an evolving body of the Fund's work focused on exploring and supporting shared leadership. This work is reinforced by a growing consensus that health services, agencies, patients and communities need to work together more – and differently."

Patients as partners: Building collaborative relationships among professionals, patients, carers and communities
B Seale
The King's Fund
July 2016

Read more here.

Securing meaningful choice for patients

"This guide sets out more detail on the fundamental enablers for effective patient choice and the key actions needed to strengthen or put them in place."

Securing meaningful choice for patients: CCG planning and improvement guide
NHS England, NHS Improvement,
August 2016

Access the guide here.

Large-scale general practice in England

"In this paper authors present the findings of a review of the literature which contributes to the Nuffield Trust’s stream of work on large-scale general practice, including the recently published findings of a 15-month mixed methods research study, Is Bigger Better? Lessons for Large-Scale General Practice. The report, published in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, aims to answer the following questions:

  1. Which organisational form(s) have large-scale collaborations of GP practices adopted in England
  2. What are they expected to deliver?
  3. What evidence is available on their impact in England?
  4. What can we learn from initiatives with similarities?"

Large-scale general practice in England: What can we learn from the literature?
L Pettigrew, N Mays, S Kumpunen, R Rosen
Nuffield Trust
September 2016

Read more here.

Making IT work

"The goal of digitisation of health systems is to promote what has become widely known as healthcare’s Triple Aim: better health, better healthcare, and lower cost. These aims are consistent with those of the NHS’s 2014 Five Year Forward View, which called for improvements in quality and service, as well as £22 billion in efficiencies. The Advisory Group believes that trying to achieve the aims of the Five Year Forward View without giving highest priority to digitisation would be a costly and painful mistake."

Making IT work: Harnessing the power of health information technology to improve care in England
R Wachter
Department of Health
September 2016

Read more here.

2016 Health Profiles

Public Health England has published the 2016 Health Profiles. The Health Profiles provide a snapshot of health and wellbeing for each local authority in England using a range of charts and text. They pull together existing information in one place and contain data on a range of indicators for local populations.

Access them here.

High need, high-cost patients

"Those who face financial or other barriers to care, or who are less likely to seek care when medically needed, may be underrepresented in counts of chronic diseases because they have not had the opportunity to be medically evaluated and diagnosed."

High need, high-cost patients: Who are they and how do they use health care? A population-based comparison of demographics, health care use, and expenditures
SL Hayes, CA Salzberg, D McCarthy, D Radley, MK Abrams, T Shah, G Anderson
The Commonwealth Fund
August 2016

Full report and accompanying date available here.

Health system performance for the high-need patient

"The health care system needs to work better for the highest-need, most-complex patients. This study’s findings highlight the importance of tailoring interventions to address their needs."

Health system performance for the high-need patient: A look at access to care and patient care experiences
CA Salzberg, SL Hayes, D McCarthy, D Radley, MK Abrams, T Shah, G Anderson
The Commonwealth Fund
August 2016

Read more here.

Improving handovers from hospital to home

"This study protocol describes the implementation of TIP, which provides the foundation for a safe, reliable and accurate discharge process. If effective, nationwide implementation of the discharge bundle may result from this study protocol."

Implementation of a Transfer Intervention Procedure (TIP) to improve handovers from hospital to home: interrupted time series analysis
R van Seben, SE Geerlings, KJM Verhaegh, CGJM Hilders, BM Buurman
BMC Health Services Research, 2016, 16:479

Read more here.

Bringing hospital-level care to the patient

"This case study is one in an ongoing series examining programs that aim to improve outcomes and reduce costs of care for patients with complex needs, who account for a large share of U.S. health care spending."

The hospital at home model: Bringing hospital-level care to the patient
S Klein, M Hostetter, D McCarthy
The Commonwealth Fund
August 2016

Read more here.

Strengthening population health intervention

"Much of the research and theorising in the knowledge translation (KT) field has focused on clinical settings, providing little guidance to those working in community settings. In this study, we build on previous research in community-based KT by detailing the theory driven and empirically-informed CollaboraKTion framework."

Strengthening population health intervention: developing the CollaboraKTion Framework for community-based knowledge translation
EK Jenkins, A Kothari, V Bungay, JL Johnson, JL Oliffe
Health Research Policy and Systems, 2016, 14:65

Read more here.

Quality assessments for cancer centers in the European Union

"The need for assessments in cancer centers is increasing. To improve efforts in the quality of research and patient care and to prevent new assessments that “reinvent the wheel”, it is advised to start comparative research into the assessments that are likely to bring patient benefits and improve patient outcome."

Quality assessments for cancer centers in the European Union
A Wind, A Rajan, WH van Harten
BMC Health Services Research, 2016, 16:474

Read more here.

Contextualizing learning to improve care using collaborative communities of practices

"Study findings offer insights into collaborative, inter-organizational community of practice learning approaches to build quality improvement capabilities amongst clinicians, staff, and managers. In particular, our study delineates the need to contextualize QI learning by using deliberate learning activities to balance systematic and structured approaches alongside pragmatic and accommodating approaches with expert mentors."

Contextualizing learning to improve care using collaborative communities of practices
L Jeffs, J McShane, V Flintoft, P White, A Indar, M Maione, AJ Lopez, S Bookey-Bassett, L Scavuzzo
BMC Health Services Research, 2016, 16:464

Read more here.

Multidisciplinary team-led community case management programme

"This study has identified that a programme of MDT-led case management was generally very well received by patients and their families."

Patients’ experiences of a multidisciplinary team-led community case management programme: a qualitative study
A Gowing, C Dickinson, T Gorman, L Robinson, R Duncan
BMJ Open, 2016, 6:e012019

Read more here.

Incentive-driven commissioning for improved oral health in primary dental care

"This is the first UK study to assess the clinical and cost-effectiveness of a blended contract in primary care dentistry."

Shaping dental contract reform: a clinical and cost-effective analysis of incentive-driven commissioning for improved oral health in primary dental care
C Hulme, PG Robinson, EC Saloniki, K Vinall-Collier, PD Baxter, G Douglas, B Gibson, JH Godson, D Meads, SH Pavitt
BMJ Open, 2016,6:e013549

Read more here.