Improving the quality and safety of patient care

"This brochure outlines some of the initiatives the UK is currently pursuing, and the organisations which are leading the way in standards of safety. The different sections also provide information on the partners who can best help you achieve your goal of safer, better healthcare."

Improving the quality and safety of patient care
Department of Health
March 2016

Read more here.

Monitoring change in health care through statistical process control methods

"The family of approaches known as statistical process control (SPC) have been widely used for monitoring outcomes in industry and have gained acceptance in many health care settings: usually within an organisation or clinical pathway. However, they are less commonly applied to look at population level changes across organisations: the changes we now see emerging in new models of care. Moreover, SPC methods can be applied to looking at some of the measures (such as changes in emergency admissions) that are commonly used to monitor major programmes of organisational change as seen in, for example, new models of integrated care or the Vanguards."

Monitoring change in health care through statistical process control methods
C Sherlaw-Johnson, M Bardsley
Nuffield Trust
January 2016

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Continuous improvement of patient safety

"This report makes the case for changing the way patient safety is approached in the NHS. It argues that change is needed in: how safety is understood, because current approaches to measurement don’t provide the full picture; how safety is improved, because existing approaches alone will not address the most intractable problems; how risk is perceived, because comfort-seeking behaviours will not create a genuine culture of learning."

Continuous improvement of patient safety: The case for change in the NHS
J Illingworth
Health Foundation
November 2015

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Improving length of stay: What can hospitals do?

"This report from the Nuffield Trust is part of a larger project undertaken with Monitor designed to test the potential for reducing admissions and length of stay in hospital and the impact this could have on the costs of hospital care and the wider costs of local systems."

Improving length of stay: What can hospitals do?
R Lewis, N Edwards
Nuffield Trust
September 2015

Read more here.

Assessing an experimental approach to industrial policy evaluation

"In this paper we consider the arguments for applying experimental methods to industrial policy measures, and propose an experimental policy evaluation approach (which we call RCT+)."

Assessing an experimental approach to industrial policy evaluation: Applying RCT+ to the case of Creative Credits
H Bakhshi, JS Edwards, S Roper, J Scully, D Shaw, L Morley, N Rathbone
Nesta Working Paper 15/10
May 2015

Read more here.

Measuring performance in psychiatry: A call to action

"This Open Forum reviews the current state of behavioral health quality measurement, describes the criteria relevant to assessing measures, and provides a case for encouraging the development, collection, and routine use of functional outcome measures in behavioral health care."

Measuring performance in psychiatry: A call to action
S Glied, et al,
Psychiatric Services, 13, February 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

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The value of health information technology

"Healthcare organizations all over the United States are adopting health information technology (HIT), yet recent studies of HIT are often unhelpful to these organizations or to those making policy decisions. Most studies fail to use adequate measures of value or to report key contextual and implementation characteristics. In this commentary, we:

• Demonstrate the problem in a sampling of published articles.
• Propose a conceptual framework and principles for measuring value in HIT.
• Present a checklist of key study characteristics."

The value of health information technology: Filling the knowledge gap
RS Rudin, SS Jones, P Shekelle, RJ Hillestad, EB Keeler
American Journal of Managed Care,
January 2015

Read more here.

Spend and outcome tool (SPOT): local authorities

"The Spend and outcome tool (SPOT) gives local authorities in England an overview of spend and outcomes across key areas of business and for public health and its sub-programmes." Access the tool here.

Safety measurement and monitoring in healthcare

"This paper summarises the findings of a more extensive report and proposes a framework which can guide clinical teams and healthcare organisations in the measurement and monitoring of safety and in reviewing progress against safety objectives."

Safety measurement and monitoring in healthcare: a framework to guide clinical teams and healthcare organisations in maintaining safety
C Vincent, S Burnett, J Carthey
BMJ Quality and Safety, 2014, 23(8):670-677

Read more here.

Framework for integrating health and social services

"This issue brief describes three essential components for integrating health, including physical and behavioral health services and public health, and social services:

1. a coordinating mechanism
2. quality measurement and data-sharing tools, and
3. aligned financing and payment"

A state policy framework for integrating health and social services
T McGinnis, M Crawford, SA Somers
The Commonwealth Fund
July 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.

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.

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.

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.

Measuring success in health care value-based purchasing programs

"Based on the findings from the environmental scan, literature review, and technical expert panels discussions, we provide a set of recommendations for consideration that could serve to advance the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of value based purchasing programs to generate critically needed knowledge to guide policymaking."

Measuring success in health care value-based purchasing programs
CL Damberg, ME Sorbero, SL Lovejoy, G Martsolf, L Raaen, D Mandel
RAND Corporation
2014

Read the summary here.

Read the findings here.

An evidence-based framework to measure quality of allied health care

"This paper outlines a framework for a standard approach to evaluate the quality of allied health therapy services."

An evidence-based framework to measure quality of allied health care
K Grimmer, L Lizarondo, S Kumar, E Bell, M Buist, P Weinstein
Health Research Policy and Systems, 2014, 12:10

Read more here.

Helping measure person-centred care

"This rapid review signposts to research about commonly used approaches and tools to help measure person-centred care. It aims to showcase the many tools available for those working in policy and practice."

Helping measure person-centred care
D de Silva
The Health Foundation
March 2014

Read more here.

Access the measurement tools here.

The challenge of change in acute mental health services

"VOCALISE can be used to explore staff perceptions of implementation climate and to assess how staff attitudes shape the successful outcomes of planned changes."

The challenge of change in acute mental health services: measuring staff perceptions of barriers to change and their relationship to job status and satisfaction using a new measure (VOCALISE)
C Laker, F Callard, C Flach, P Williams, J Sayer, T Wykes
Implementation Science, 2014, 9:23

Read more here.

NHS waiting times for elective care in England

"This study examines the performance, recording and management of elective care waiting times in England."

NHS waiting times for elective care in England
National Audit Office
January 2014

Read more here.