Closer to critical? QualityWatch

"Our third annual statement, Closer to critical?, aims to help policy-makers, healthcare leaders, patient groups and others make sense of quality across health and social care, primarily in England. We observe that while there are many areas of excellent care, there are also increasingly clear signals that in some areas quality is deteriorating."

Closer to critical? QualityWatch annual statement 2015
The Health Foundation, Nuffield Trust
November 2015

Read more here.

Access, quality, and costs of care at physician owned hospitals in the United States

"Using a comprehensive list of POHs [physician owned hospitals] across the United States and contemporary data, we found no evidence that POHs systematically avoid poorer patients or those from ethnic and racial minority groups. POHs also performed equally to non-POHs on a wide array of measures of quality of care, costs, and payments for care. These findings indicate a need to re-examine existing public policies that target all hospitals with physician owners."

Access, quality, and costs of care at physician owned hospitals in the United States: observational study
DM Blumenthal, EJ Orav, AB Jena, DM Dudzinski, ST Le,  AK Jha, KT Li
BMJ 2015; 351 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h4466


Read more here.

King’s Fund report into dermatology services in the UK

"Our work exposed major concerns about the current quality of commissioning for dermatology services and the lack of specialist knowledge among commissioners. Commissioning should facilitate the new models of care with tariffs that reflect and encourage new patient-centred ways of working."

King’s Fund report into dermatology services in the UK
British Association of Dermatologists
April 2015

Read more here.

Implementing a patient-initiated review system in rheumatoid arthritis

"This study forms part of a service evaluation of a system wide implementation of a patient initiated review appointment system which we have called Direct Access (DA). The aim was to explore the experiences of patients and staff of a DA system in order to understand the process of the implementation and to identify potential improvements."

Implementing a patient-initiated review system in rheumatoid arthritis: a qualitative evaluation
S Child, VA Goodwin, MG Perry, CA Gericke, R Byng
BMC Health Services Research 2015, 15:157  doi:10.1186/s12913-015-0837-9

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Access to hospital care: is the NHS on target?

"Our fourth policy briefing in the run-up to the General Election 2015 examines how hospital trusts in England are performing against six national targets. The paper argues against the notion that dips in performance can be attributed to a handful of poorly performing hospital trusts, and finds there has been deterioration across the board in some measures."

Access to hospital care: is the NHS on target?
H Dorning, I Blunt
Nuffield Trust
March 2015

Read more here.

Is general practice in crisis?

"This briefing provides an evidence-based overview of the current state of general practice in England, and offers some potential solutions. It examines demand for GP services, the GP workforce, funding, and standards of access and quality of care. It then presents four ideas to help solve the problems facing general practice – and the wider NHS."

Is general practice in crisis?
M Dayan, S Arora, R Rosen, N Curry
Nuffield Trust
November 2014

Read more here.

Cause for concern: QualityWatch annual statement 2014

"The past year has seen an increasing number of signs that historic improvements in quality are not being sustained in some areas, or have even reversed. Stress signals we first identified in 2013 are now becoming even stronger and apparent in a wider range of services."

Cause for concern: QualityWatch annual statement 2014
The Health Foundation, Nuffield Trust
October 2014

Read more here.

Achieving better access to mental health services by 2020

"The introduction of new standards, new payment and new commissioning regimes will drive a much richer set of data about the quality and performance of services for all ages and the outcomes achieved. Much more relevant data, open to patients, the public, providers and commissioners will help to drive improvement and expose and then eradicate unacceptably long waits for treatment."

Achieving better access to mental health services by 2020
NHS England, Department of Health
August 2014

Read more 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.

Influence of shared medical appointments on patient satisfaction

"Patient-centered, accessible, and timely care is a vital element of quality primary care. Our findings suggest greater overall patient-reported satisfaction, superior appointment access, and enhanced sensitivity to patients’ needs with shared medical appointments as compared with the traditional encounter within primary care" 

Influence of shared medical appointments on patient satisfaction: a retrospective 3-year study
L Heyworth, R Rozenblum, JF Burgess, E Baker, M Meterko, D Prescott, Z Neuwirth, SR Simon
Annals of Family Medicine, 2014; 324-330.

Read more here.

Improved access to primary care and supply-induced demand

"We examine what supply-induced demand is, distinguishing between demand for services that is stimulated by easier access to new forms of primary care (described as ‘induced demand’) and clinical practice in direct access primary care that stimulates additional use of other services (described as ‘induced utilisation’)."

Meeting need or fuelling demand? improved access to primary care and supply-induced demand 

R Rosen

Nuffield Trust

June 2014

Read more here.

Putting quality on the global health agenda

"Investing in programs to improve access to health care services is critically important — but will not be enough to improve the health of the world's population. We need to prioritize both access and quality, because doing more isn't better. Doing better is better."

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

Read more here.

Improving dementia long-term care

"RAND identified 25 high-impact policy options covering five broad objectives to improve dementia long-term services and supports (LTSS) delivery system, workforce, and financing."

Improving dementia long-term care: a policy blueprint
RA Shih, TW Concannon, JL Liu, E Friedman
RAND corporation

Read more here.

The UK healthcare system scores highest on quality, access and efficiency

"The United Kingdom ranks first overall, scoring highest on quality, access, and efficiency"

Mirror, mirror on the wall: how the performance of the U.S. health care system compares internationally
K Davis, K Stremikis, D Squires, C Schoen
The Commonwealth Fund
June 2014

Read more here.

Enabling better access to primary care for vulnerable populations

"This short report focuses on models of primary care that are designed to promote registration with and access to good primary and continuing care on an equitable basis."

Promising practice: enabling better access to primary care for vulnerable populations – examples of good local practice
Inclusion Health
April 2014

Read more here.

Improving dental care and oral health

"This data pack has been produced to support the ‘call to action’ to stimulate debate in local communities – amongst dentists, dental care professionals, patients and public, dental commissioners, health and wellbeing boards and other stakeholders – as to how best to develop NHS dental services." 

Improving dental care and oral health – a call to action evidence resource pack 
NHS England Dental Analytical Team
February 2014

Read more here.