Higher quality dementia care

"In a programme of 3 linked studies, we investigated the impact of the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) dementia review on the quality of care received by those with dementia, focusing particularly on the interface between primary and secondary care."

Higher quality dementia care
Centre for Health Economics, University of York
February 2016

Read more here.

Review of operational productivity in NHS providers

"Many hospitals have told us they would welcome more detailed guidance on what
good looks like. We therefore believe it would be appropriate to publish, in stages, what a model NHS hospital could look like in terms of operational productivity and cost."

Review of operational productivity in NHS providers: Interim report
NHS Procurement
June 2015

Read more here.

Focus on: International comparisons of healthcare quality

" It is encouraging that the UK is stable or improving on almost all the indicators (25 out of 27), and we hope that the UK can at least maintain but ideally increase the speed of improvement."

Focus on: International comparisons of healthcare quality: What can the team learn?
L Kossarova, I Blunt, M Bardsley
Quality Watch: The Health Foundation, Nuffield Trust
July 2015

Read more here.

Hospital finances and productivity: in a critical condition?

"Our analysis suggests that while the NHS did improve its productivity in the early years of this parliament, performance has now tailed off sharply and the crude productivity of hospitals has gone backwards over the last two years."

Hospital finances and productivity: in a critical condition?
S Lafond, A Charlesworth, A Roberts
The Health Foundation
April 2015

Read more here.

Toolkit for commissioners to reduce poor in-patient care

A new toolkit is published today by NHS England to help commissioners reduce poor experience of in-patient care.

Access the toolkit here.

Enabling local implementation of sustainable urgent and emergency care models

“Efforts should focus on building an effective community offer. This will require adequate investment to transform primary, community and social care – while ensuring that acute and emergency care remains sustainable.”

Rip off the sticking plaster now: Enabling the local implementation of sustainable urgent and emergency care models in 2015/16
NHS Confederation
April 2015

Read more here.

Identification of promising strategies to sustain improvements in hospital practice

"Certain post-implementation strategies are valuable in sustaining implementation successes achieved after joining a quality improvement collaborative."

Identification of promising strategies to sustain improvements in hospital practice: a qualitative case study
SMC Ament, et al.
BMC Health Services Research, 2014, 14:641

Read more here.

Initiatives to reduce length of stay in acute hospital settings

"There is consistent, albeit limited, evidence that enhanced recovery programmes may reduce length of patient hospital stay without increasing readmission rates."

Initiatives to reduce length of stay in acute hospital settings: a rapid synthesis of evidence relating to enhanced recovery programmes
F Paton, D Chambers, P Wilson, A Eastwood, D Craig, D Fox, D Jayne, E McGinnes
National Institute for Health Research
Health Services and Delivery Research, 2014, 2(21)

Read more here.

Promoting engagement by patients and families to reduce adverse events in acute care settings

"While patient engagement in safety is appealing, there is insufficient high-quality evidence informing real-world implementation."

Promoting engagement by patients and families to reduce adverse events in acute care settings: a systematic review
Z Berger, TE Flickinger, E Pfoh, KA Martinez, SM Dy
BMJ Quality & Safety, 2014;23:548-555

Read more here.

Qualitative assessment of visitor and migrant use of the NHS in England

"These 2 reports, commissioned by the Department of Health, provide evidence of the impact overseas visitors and migrants are having in GP practices and NHS hospitals."

Access these reports here.

Instruments for assessing the risk of falls in acute hospitalized patients

"The STRATIFY scale was found to be the best tool for assessing the risk of falls by hospitalized acutely-ill adults."

Instruments for assessing the risk of falls in acute hospitalized patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis
M Aranda-Gallardo, et al.
BMC Health Services Research, 2013, 13:122

Read more here.

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.

A new model for quality improvement in acute inpatient psychiatry

"The acute assessment model attempts to address the need for the NHS to deliver more for less, whilst remaining focused on service-user and staff satisfaction."

A new model for quality improvement in acute inpatient psychiatry: observational data from an acute assessment unit
J Hayes, R Gibbons, F Outim, S Tang, A Chakraborty
Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine Short Reports, 2012, 3(9)

Read more here.

Hospital quality competition under fixed prices

"The literature shows that more competition increases quality when providers are profit maximisers and marginal cost of treatment is constant."

Hospital quality competition under fixed prices: CHE Research Paper 80
H Gravelle, R Santos, L Siciliani, R Goudie
University of York
November 2012

Read more here.

English hospitals can improve their use of resources

"The findings suggest that all hospitals have scope to make efficiency savings in at least one of the clinical areas considered by this study."

English hospitals can improve their use of resources: an analysis of costs and length of stay for ten treatments
CHE Research Paper 78
J Gaughan, A Mason, A Street, P Ward
Centre for Health Economics, University of York
July 2012

Read more here.

Acute medical care for frail older people

"Geriatricians supporting acute medical units will be able to help to identify older people who may be safely managed in the community, probably improving patient outcomes and reducing hospital bed-days."

Acute care toolkit 3: Acute medical care for frail older people
Royal College of Physicians
March 2012

Read more here.

Guidance for commissioners of liaison mental health services to acute hospitals

"Commissioning of acute liaison services should be universally included in contracts for the provision of acute hospital services and concord to standards set by professional and regulatory authorities."


Guidance for commissioners of liaison mental health services to acute hospitals: volume 2: practical mental health commissioning
Joint Commissioning Panel for Mental Health
February 2012

Read more here.

Levels of harm

"This research scan explores what is known about levels of harm in acute care and primary care."


Levels of harm
The Health Foundation
January 2011

Read more here.

Acute care toolkit for handover

"The Royal College of Physicians has prepared a series of toolkits with the goal of ensuring that patients get access to the highest quality of acute medical care wherever and whenever it is needed."

Acute care toolkit for handover
Royal College of Physicians
May 2011

Read more here.