Crisis response falls team: reducing admissions and repeat falls

"This initiative saves money by reducing the proportion of falls related calls that result in hospital admission. From over 1300 referrals accepted by the CRFT in Northamptonshire in 2012, just over 1000 admissions were avoided." 

Crisis response falls team: reducing admissions and repeat falls
East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust
QIPP Case Study
August 2014

Read more here.

Pressure ulcers: NICE clinical audit tools

NICE have published two clinical audit tools for pressure ulcer prevention, one for paediatric care and one for adults.

"Clinical audit tools are Excel spreadsheets developed to help with clinical audit. They contain clinical audit standards, data collection sheets, a clinical audit report an action plan template and a printable data collection form.  When data is entered into the data collection sheets the audit results are automatically displayed in the audit report."

Access the tools and find out more here.

Service redesign: early identification of patients at risk of developing end-stage kidney disease

"This initiative aims to reduce the rate of loss of kidney function in people with diabetes and chronic kidney disease, so that fewer people develop kidney failure and require dialysis."

Service redesign: early identification of patients at risk of developing end-stage kidney disease
Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust
QIPP Case Study
August 2014

Read more here.

Identifying systems failures in the pathway to a catastrophic event

"We identified areas of concern even within the context of a highly controlled standardised national process. If incident reporting systems include and encourage reports of no-harm incidents in addition to actual patient harm, they can facilitate monitoring the resilience of healthcare processes. Patient safety incidents that produce the most serious harm are often rare, and it is difficult to know whether patients are adequately protected. Our approach provides a potential solution."

Identifying systems failures in the pathway to a catastrophic event: an analysis of national incident report data relating to vinca alkaloids
BD Franklin, SS Panesar, C Vincent, LJ Donaldson
BMJ Quality and Safety, 2014;23:765-772

Read more here.

Nurse-reported hospital characteristics and estimated 30-day survival probabilities

"Perceived staffing adequacy, but not nurse-patient ratio was associated with overall survival. This result suggests that the way resources are organised is a critical factor to achieve the goal of quality and safety. Furthermore, nurses’ assessments of quality of nursing were correlated with overall survival and survival"
An observational study: associations between nurse-reported hospital characteristics and estimated 30-day survival probabilities
C Tvedt, IS Sjetne, J Helgeland, G Bukholm
BMJ Quality and Safety, 2014; 23: 757–764.

Read more here.

The frequency of diagnostic errors in outpatient care

"Our population-based estimate suggests that diagnostic errors affect at least 1 in 20 US adults. This foundational evidence should encourage policymakers, healthcare organisations and researchers to start measuring and reducing diagnostic errors."

The frequency of diagnostic errors in outpatient care: estimations from three large observational studies involving US adult populations
H Singh, AND Meyer, EJ Thomas
BMJ Quality and Safety, 2014; 23: 727–731.

Read more here.

Building capability to improve safety

"On 14 May 2014, the Health Foundation hosted a workshop to discuss building capability for improving safety. The event was developed in collaboration with NHS Improving Quality and was attended by leaders from across the NHS. The aim was to produce a useful overview of what capability for safety improvement organisations need, and the best ways to go about developing this capability."

Building capability to improve safety: Event report
The Health Foundation
August 2014

Read more here.

Better Care Fund updated guidance

NHS England have updated (July 2014) the Better Care Fund guidance and templates. A series of webinars will be available of the next few days with additional support and details of the changes.

Find out more here.

NHS National Tariff Payment System 2015/16 consultation

"Monitor and NHS England’s long-term aim is to develop a transparent, flexible and accountable NHS payment system that rewards good-quality, efficient care that delivers the best possible outcomes for patients.

The proposed changes to the 2015/16 National Tariff Payment System are designed to help maintain financial discipline while promoting quality high-quality care for patients in tough economic conditions.

Healthcare providers and commissioners are encouraged to respond to these proposals in order to influence the final national tariff which will be published later in the year."
Access the consultation documents here.

Putting quality on the global health agenda

"Although there is no single definition of high-quality care, the Institute of Medicine describes it as having six key features: it is safe, effective, patient-centered, efficient, timely, and equitable. All these features are important, but there is recent evidence of particularly substantial deficiencies in the first three."

Putting quality on the global health agenda
KW Scott, AK Jha
New England Journal of Medicine, 2014; 371: 3-5

Read more here.

BMJ Quality Improvement Reports

"BMJ Quality Improvement Reports is a new searchable repository of global quality improvement evidence and best practice from the BMJ Group."

Find out more and search the repository here.

A qualitative analysis of information sharing for children with medical complexity within and across health care organizations

"Information exchange is critically important in high quality care of complex patients at high risk for poor care coordination. Written care plans for children with medical complexity are an excellent test case for how well information sharing is currently occurring. The purpose of this study was to identify the barriers to and facilitators of information sharing for CMC across providers, care settings, and families."

A qualitative analysis of information sharing for children with medical complexity within and across health care organizations
L Quigley, A Lacombe-Duncan, S Adams, C Moore Hepburn, E Cohen
BMC Health Services Research 2014, 14:283

Read more here.

What does the future hold for the NHS

"The contributions gathered here address some of the most complex or controversial debates in healthcare – such as decommissioning, integration, engagement, and leadership." 

This collection from Birmingham University's Health Services Management Centre contains the following articles:

• Decommissioning and the leadership challenge in health care
• System leadership in a fragmented system
• Strengthening Communities to Deliver the Better Care Fund
• The role of leadership and collaboration in the development of a social impact measurement system for use in healthcare
• The NHS and Diversity: research on the real lives behind the differences
• Moving upstream: The case for prevention
• Telehealth and the NHS: are we asking the right questions?
• Learning lessons from other countries 
• A Health Workforce that’s fit for the Twenty-First Century
• Keep schtum or whistle: what makes some health and care managers resist corruptions to practices
• Nursing is hard emotional work - why is that ignored?
• Developing a culture of compassionate care: lost in translation
• Evaluating the future of healthcare: where does the truth lie?

What does the future hold for the NHS
Health Services Management Centre
University of Birmingham
June 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: 670–677

Read more here.

Patient complaints in healthcare systems

"Patient complaints have been identified as a valuable resource for monitoring and improving patient safety. This article critically reviews the literature on patient complaints, and synthesises the research findings to develop a coding taxonomy for analysing patient complaints"

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

Read more here.

London CCGs map out future of mental health commissioning

"A leadership programme to help London CCG mental health leads commission more effectively was the result of a major collaborative effort, writes Stefanie Radford and colleagues"

London CCGs map out future of mental health commissioning
S Radford, A Moore, P Fonagy, P Ilves, G Strathdee, G Monks
Health Service Journal
July 2014

Read more here.

Right Care essential reading: Programme budgeting and marginal analysis

"Before starting marginal analysis, payers and commissioners will expect clinicians to examine their own budgets. Payers and commissioners will want assurance that: the entire programme budget is allocated optimally to the different conditions within that programme; after allocation the service achieves high value from the resource allocation.

Right Care essential reading: Programme budgeting and marginal analysis (PBMA)
N Pearce-Smith, M Gray
NHS Right Care
July 2014
Access the reading list here.

Adult social care efficiency tool

"The adult social care efficiency tool identifies similar areas (or ‘statistical neighbours’) for adult social care delivery for older people and working age adults with learning disabilities. These are the two largest groups who receive adult social care. The comparable indicators include spending per head, quality of services and access to services."

Adult social care efficiency tool
Department of Health
August 2014

Find out more and access the tool here.