Development of key performance indicators to evaluate centralized intake for patients with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis

"Arthritis stakeholders have proposed 28 KPIs [Key Performance Indicators] that should be used in quality improvement efforts when evaluating centralized intake for OA [osteoarthritis] and RA [rheumatoid arthritis]. The KPIs measure five of the six dimensions of quality and are relevant to patients, practitioners and health systems."

Development of key performance indicators to evaluate centralized intake for patients with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis
CE Barber et al.
Arthritis Research & Therapy 2015, 17:322 doi:10.1186/s13075-015-0843-7

Read more here. 

Consensus on quality

"At the end of 2014, Solutions for Public Health (SPH) was commissioned to conduct a study to gather consensus from a range of stakeholder groups on what they felt was important to measure in order to understand the quality of healthcare. This study used a Delphi-style consultation approach to interrogate 73 statements that describe the measurable aspects of the quality of healthcare."

Consensus on quality
H Dorning
The Health Foundation, Nuffield Trust
December 2015

Read more here.

Closer to critical? QualityWatch annual statement 2015

"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.

Indicators of quality of care in general practices in England

"In the summer of 2015 the Health Foundation was asked by the Secretary of State for Health to review indicators of the quality of care provided by general practices in England. We looked at how indicators could be developed to generate meaningful information that supports improvements to care and helps the public choose which practice might best meet their needs."

Indicators of quality of care in general practices in England: An independent review for the Secretary of State for Health
J Dixon, E Spencelayh, A Howells, A Mandel, F Gille
The Health Foundation
October 2015

Read more here.

Are measurements of patient safety culture and adverse events valid and reliable?

"The aim of this cross sectional study was to explore associations between the safety culture
and adverse events, and evaluate the validity of the tools used for the measurements. "

Are measurements of patient safety culture and adverse events valid and reliable? Results from a cross sectional study
PG Farup
BMC Health Services Research 2015, 15:186  doi:10.1186/s12913-015-0852-x

Read more here.

The relationship between accounting and quality improvement in healthcare

"Accounting is often ineffective not because it is inherently incomparable with quality and the complexities of healthcare, but because its underlying characteristics have not been fully acknowledged or understood."

Accounting for quality: on the relationship between accounting and quality improvement in healthcare
D Pflueger
BMC Health Services Research 2015, 15:178  doi:10.1186/s12913-015-0769-4

Read more here.

Tackling the myths about outcomes in health

"Designing services on the basis of outcomes is trickier than designing services to deliver specified activity or outputs, but it is also more likely to result in a better and more cost-effective service"

Outcomes based approaches to healthcare: Tackling the myths about outcomes in health 
Outcomes Based Healthcare
2014

Read more here.

Is mental health care improving?

"This overview uses the available data to assess the quality of health care services for people with mental health problems in England. It focuses on three different groups: adults with common mental health problems, adults with severe and enduring mental health problems, and children and young people."

Is mental health care improving?
F Dormon
The Health Foundation
March 2015

Read more here.

Patient-Reported Measures

"As health care organizations focus more on keeping people healthy and delivering value, incorporating patient-reported measures (PRMs) as part of their overall performance improvement measurement system will be crucial."

Patient-Reported Measures
L Savitz, K Luther
Healthcare Executive, 2015 Jan;30(1):74-77

Read more here (free registration required).

Insulin pump therapy: clinical audit tool

NICE have published a cost saving audit tool to assist in comparing practice against the NICE technology appraisal guidance for insulin pump therapy.

TA151 Diabetes - insulin pump therapy: clinical audit tool
NICE
December 2014

Read more here.

Managing quality in community health care services

"This paper reports on the findings from a small primary research study exploring how community health services providers define, measure, manage and improve the quality of care."

Managing quality in community health care services
C Foot, L Sonola, L Bennett, B Fitzsimons, V Raleigh, S Gregory
The King's Fund
December 2014

Read more here.

IMatter: validation of the NHS Scotland Employee Engagement Index

"Employee engagement is a fundamental component of quality healthcare. In order to provide empirical data of engagement in NHS Scotland an Employee Engagement Index was co-constructed with staff. `iMatter? consists of 25 Likert questions developed iteratively from the literature and a series of validation events with NHS Scotland staff. The aim of this study was to test the face, content and construct validity of iMatter."

IMatter: validation of the NHS Scotland Employee Engagement Index
A Snowden, E MacArthur
BMC Health Services Research 2014, 14:535  doi:10.1186/s12913-014-0535-z

Read more here.

"Patient experience is a key quality outcome for modern health services, but most existing survey methods are long and setting-specific. We identified the need for a short generic questionnaire for tracking patient experience."
 
A short generic patient experience questionnaire: howRwe development and validation
T Benson, H Potts
BMC Health Services Research 2014, 14:499

Read more here.

Allied health professionals - Can we measure quality of care?

"In this report, we explore the quality of care and services delivered by allied health professionals (AHPs). AHPs are a group of autonomous practitioners who work with many other professionals and at many points along the care pathway." 

Focus on: Allied health professionals - Can we measure quality of care? (Quality Watch)
H Dorning, M Bardsley
Health Foundation, Nuffield Trust
September 2014

Read more here.

Tweets about hospital quality: a mixed methods study

"Only a small proportion of tweets directed at hospitals discuss quality of care and there was no clear relationship between Twitter sentiment and other measures of quality, potentially limiting Twitter as a medium for quality monitoring. However, tweets did contain information useful to target quality improvement activity"

Tweets about hospital quality: a mixed methods study
F Greaves, AA Laverty, D Ramirez Cano, K Moilanen, S Pulman, A Darzi1, C Millett
BMJ Quality and Safety 2014;23:838-846

Read more here.

Quality and the curate’s egg

"To truly understand quality, we will have to look at both the sum and the function of its parts and understand it all within the context in which it was delivered."

Quality and the curate’s egg
F Greaves, AK Jha
BMJ Quality and Safety, 2014; 23: 525-527

Read more here.