Improvement science webinars

"The Health Foundation has produced this webinar series which will focus on issues of importance to the emerging community of improvement science researchers and practitioners in healthcare."

Access the webinars here.

Engaging physicians and consumers in conversations about treatment overuse and waste

"In developing the Choosing Wisely campaign, the specialty societies each developed lists of five tests and procedures that physicians and patients should question. Over 50 specialty societies have developed more than 250 evidence-based recommendations, some of which Consumer Reports has “translated” into consumer-friendly language and helped disseminate to tens of millions of consumers."

Engaging physicians and consumers in conversations about treatment overuse and waste: A short history of the Choosing Wisely campaign
D Wolfson, J Santa, L Slass
Academic Medicine, 2014, 89:990-995

Read more here.

The Engagement Cycle

"The Engagement Cycle helps organisations undertake meaningful patient and public engagement for maximum impact. It is a tried and tested, practical resource, used by dozens of Clinical Commissioning Groups (and others) to plan, design and deliver great services for, and with, local people."

Access The Engagement Cycle here.

The Regional Mental Health Commissioning Networks Portal

"The Regional Mental Health Commissioning Networks Portal supports the commissioning of high quality, outcomes focused value for money mental health services. It provides networking opportunities for people across six network areas in East Midlands, West Midlands, North West, South East, South West, and Yorkshire & Humber/North East."

Find out more here.

The positive pharmacy care law

"Our study shows that the majority of the population can access a community pharmacy within 20 min walk and crucially, access is greater in areas of highest deprivation—a positive pharmacy care law."

The positive pharmacy care law: an area-level analysis of the relationship between community pharmacy distribution, urbanity and social deprivation in England
A Todd, A Copeland, A Husband, A Kasim, C Bambra
BMJ Open, 2014;4:e005764

Read more here.

Improving health outcomes using evidence from the voluntary and community sector

"Using different types of evidence from the voluntary and community sector can support the development of a constructive Joint Strategic Needs Assessment on which to base sound strategy development and commissioning decisions."

Comparing apples with oranges? How to make better use of evidence from the volutary and community sector to improve health outcomes
NHS Confederation
August 2014, Issue 293

Read more here.

What does the future hold for the NHS?

"The following articles reflect the broad range of interests held by Health Services Management Centre colleagues, but all consider the future challenges and opportunities for the NHS, and interpret leadership in a range of contexts."

What does the future hold for the NHS?
Health Services Management Centre
University of Birmingham
June 2014

Read more here.

How is the NHS performing?

"The Quarterly monitoring report combines publicly available data on selected NHS performance measures with views from NHS finance directors and clinical commissioning group (CCG) finance leads."

How is the NHS performing? Quarterly monitoring report
J Appleby, J Thompson, J Jabbal
The King's Fund
July 2014

Read more here.

Focus on: A&E attendances

"We explored a range of factors thought to be contributing to increased pressure on A&E in the English NHS and tested whether recent changes in these factors could explain the current pressures observed in the system."

QualityWatch: Focus on: A&E attendances: Why are patients waiting longer?
I Blunt
Nuffield Trust, The Health Foundation
July 2014

Read more here.

NHS Atlas of Variation: Procurement

"The new online NHS Procurement Atlas of Variation will help hospitals to compare prices and identify where they need to drive down costs so they can invest in more doctors and nurses to care for patients, as well as in frontline care."

Access the Atlas here.

Essential Reading list: Programme Budgeting and Marginal Analysis (PBMA)

“Essential Reading” is a series of reading lists on specifc themes relevant to our Right Care programme themes. They provide you with a rapid introduction to the subject and access to knowledge which will change your thinking." The subject of this list is programme budgeting and marginal analysis.

Access the reading list here.

The future burden of obesity-related diseases

"Modelling future disease trends is a useful tool for policymakers so that they can allocate resources effectively and implement policies to prevent non-communicable diseases."

The future burden of obesity-related diseases in the 53 WHO European-Region countries and the impact of effective interventions: a modelling study
L Webber, D Divajeva, T Marsh, K McPherson, M Brown, G Galea, J Breda
BMJ Open, 2014, 4:e004787

Read more here.

INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE: Refreshing the NHS Outcomes Framework 2015-2016

This consultation seeks views on how the NHS outcomes framework could be improved. It closes at 12 September 2014 12:00am.

Read the documents here.

Improving NHS care by engaging staff and devolving decision-making

"This report argues that the NHS will not be able to deliver high-quality care for all within constrained budgets unless renewed efforts are made to engage staff and harness their commitment to improve care continuously."

Improving NHS care by engaging staff and developing decision-making: Report of the review of staff engagement and empowerment in the NHS
The King's Fund
July 2014

Read more here.

How does burnout affect physician productivity?

"There is evidence that burnout is associated with decreased productivity. However, this line of inquiry is still developing. A number of gaps are yet to be filled including understanding how to quantify the changes in productivity related to burnout."

How does burnout affect physician productivity? A systematic literature review
CS Dewa, D Loong, S Bonato, NX Thanh, P Jacobs
BMC Health Services Research, 2014, 14:325

Read more here.

Public participation in health-related research decisions: Views of funding bodies

"For research to have its maximum impact when translated into healthcare, health policies and health technologies, there needs to be sensitivity towards multiple frames of knowledge, expertise and underlying values that exist across science and society."

UK research funding bodies’ views towards public participation in health-related research decisions: an exploratory study
JE van Bekkum, S Hilton
BMC Health Services Research, 2014, 14:318

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.

Commissioning for quality: Views from Commissioners

"This resource seeks to provide support to commissioners in terms of their responsibilities for quality – CCGs and NHS England commissioners."

Access the resource here.

Healthcare UK review of 2013-14 and business plan for 2014-15

"Healthcare UK (comprising Department of Health, NHS England, UK Trade & Investment) now has a strong identity which is recognised by its customers both in the UK and overseas and has helped it to achieve success in its first year of operations."

Healthcare UK review of 2013-14 and business plan for 2014-15
Healthcare UK
August 2014

Read more here.

Adult social care efficiency tool

"The Adult social care efficiency tool helps local authorities to understand how their services compare for value for money with similar local authority areas."

Access the tool here.

Visitor and migrant NHS cost recovery programme implementation plan 2014–16

"The Department of Health is working to improve the systems for charging overseas visitors and migrants for their NHS healthcare in England and increase the extent of the services for which they can be charged."

Visitor and migrant NHS cost recovery programme implementation plan 2014–16
Department of Health
July 2014

Read this guidance here.

Quality improvement collaboratives and the wisdom of crowds

"This article addresses an underexplored topic, namely the use of quality improvement collaboratives as ‘intentional spread strategy.’"

Quality improvement collaboratives and the wisdom of crowds: spread explained by perceived success at group level
MLA Duckers, PP Groenewegen, C Wagner
Implementation Science, 2014, 9:91

Read more here.

New directions in evidence-based policy research

"Rather than asking how research evidence can be made more influential, academics should aim to understand what influences and constitutes policy, and produce more critically and theoretically informed studies of decision-making."

New directions in evidence-based policy research: a critical analysis of the literature
K Oliver, T Lorenc, S Innvaer
Health Research Policy and Systems, 2014, 12:34

Read more here.

Building capability to improve safety

"This is a summary of a workshop discussion, providing examples of approaches and activities for building safety improvement capability."

Building capability to improve safety
The Health Foundation
August 2014

Read more here.

Improvement collaboratives in health care

"Quality improvement collaboratives involve groups of professionals coming together, either from within an organisation or across multiple organisations, to learn from and motivate each other to improve the quality of health services."

Evidence scan no. 21: Improvement collaboratives in health care
D de Silva
The Health Foundation
July 2014

Read more 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.

Patient complaints in healthcare systems

"Rigorous analyses of patient complaints will help to identify problems in patient safety."

Patient complaints in healthcare systems: a systematic review and coding taxonomy
TW Reader, A Gillespie, J Roberts
BMJ Quality and Safety, 2014, 23(8):678-689

Read more here.

Entrepreneurs and technology and the improvement of informal care in the UK

"With demand for informal care growing substantially, this paper explores the need for new tools and services to encourage greater supply of informal care and greater support for informal carers. We have identified the significant role social entrepreneurs and digital technology can play in providing such innovation, and we believe this creates a compelling case for impact investment in the informal care sector."

Who cares? The role that entrepreneurs and technology can play in improving informal care in the UK
K Mountain
Nesta Impact Investments
May 2014

Read more here.

Half of Americans think expensive medical care is better. They're wrong.

"Research doesn't show a connection between higher medical prices and better outcomes."

Half of Americans think expensive medical care is better. They're wrong.
S Kliff
Vox, 21 July 2014

Read more here.