New Commissioning for Value packs

"The information in the packs will be of particular interest to CCG clinical and management leads with responsibility for finance, performance, improvement and health outcomes; to NHS England regional team leads; and to commissioning support teams who are helping CCGs with this work."

Commissioning for Value – comprehensive data packs to support CCGs and NHS England in the regions
NHS England
January 2016

Access the packs here.

How is the NHS performing? October 2015

"The NHS is now entering seriously dangerous financial territory which will have ramifications for patients and for all levels of NHS management."

How is the NHS performing?:Quarterly Monitoring Report
J Appleby, J Thompson, J Jabbal
King's Fund
October 2015

Read more here.

Health in the 2015 General Election: An analysis of party manifestos

"This briefing provides analysis of and commentary on the manifesto pledges of the parties that have made up the opposition or government in the most recent parliament – the Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Labour parties."

Health in the 2015 General Election: An analysis of party manifestos
Nuffield Trust
April 2015

Read more here.

The NHS under the coalition government: NHS performance

"Our verdict overall is that NHS performance held up well for the first three years of the parliament but has now slipped, with waiting times at their highest levels for many years and an unprecedented number of hospitals reporting deficits. "

The NHS under the coalition government: Part two: NHS performance
J Appleby, B Baird, J Thompson, J Jabbal
The King's Fund
March 2015

Read more here.

How is the NHS performing? October 2014

"Our latest survey of finance directors reveals the highest level of pessimism about the financial position of health organisations since we began surveying in the autumn of 2011. For the first time since we began our quarterly survey, no one expressed any degree of optimism about the financial state of their local health economies over the next year."

How is the NHS performing?: Quarterly Monitoring Report
J Appleby, J Thompson, J Jabbal
The King's Fund
October 2014

Read more here.

Implementing electronic health records in hospitals: a systematic literature review

"Although EHR systems are anticipated as having positive effects on the performance of hospitals, their implementation is a complex undertaking. This systematic review reveals reasons for this complexity and presents a framework of 19 interventions that can help overcome typical problems in EHR implementation."

Implementing electronic health records in hospitals: a systematic literature review
A Boonstra1, A Versluis, JFJ Vos
BMC Health Services Research 2014, 14:370

Read more here.

Hospital discharge of the elderly - functions, variability and performance-shaping factors

"Precision issues related to (1) decision-making criteria concerning the medical fitness decision and appropriate level of care, (2) quality of discharge planning, (3) degree of patient involvement, and (4) quality of information transfer."

Hospital discharge of the elderly-an observational case study of functions, variability and performance-shaping factors
K Laugaland, K Aase, J Waring
BMC Health Services Research 2014, 14:365

Read more here.

How is the NHS performing?

"As the NHS starts its fourth year with effectively no real increase in funding and faced with undiminished urgency to generate more care to meet growing demands, it is of little surprise that our latest survey of finance directors reveals continuing pessimism about the financial position of health organisations and local health economies."

How is the NHS performing? Quarterly monitoring report
The King's Fund
July 2014

Read more here.

Surgeon's experiences of receiving peer benchmarked feedback

"Policy makers and researchers need to increase professionals’ awareness of the numerous purposes and benefits of using PROMs"

Surgeon's experiences of receiving peer benchmarked feedback using patient-reported outcome measures: a qualitative study
MB Boyce, JP Browne, J Greenhalgh
Implementation Science, 2014, 9: 84

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.

Reforming the NHS from within

"NHS reform has relied too much on external stimuli such as targets and performance management, inspection and regulation, and competition and choice, and too little on bringing about improvement ‘from within’."

Reforming the NHS from within: beyond hierarchy, inspection and markets
C Ham
The King's Fund
June 2014

Read more here.

Hospital readmission performance and patterns of readmission

"These findings suggest that lower readmission rates might best be achieved through use of general strategies and capacities that lower readmission risk globally rather than for specific diagnoses or time periods after admission."

Hospital readmission performance and patterns of readmission: retrospective cohort study of Medicare admissions
K Dharmarajan, et al.
British Medical Journal, 2013, 347:f6571

Read more here.

Association between chronic disease related hospitalisations and primary health care resourcing

"Measuring hospitalisations, that could potentially be avoided with high quality and accessible primary care, is one indicator of how well primary care services are performing."

A systematic review of evidence on the association between hospitalisation for chronic disease related ambulatory care sensitive conditions and primary health care resourcing
OR Gibson, L Segal, RA McDermott
BMC Health Services Research, 2013, 13:336

Read more here.

How is the health and social care system performing?

"The Quarterly Monitoring Report combines publicly available data on selected NHS performance measures with views from a panel of NHS finance directors."

How is the health and social care system performing? Quarterly monitoring report
The King's Fund
June 2013

Read more here.

Patterns of maternity care in English NHS hospitals 2011/12

"The work presented in this report was focused to defining intrapartum care indicators that can be robustly derived at hospital level using Hospital Episode Statistics data. Further work is needed to understand the relationships between the indicators as well as patterns of care that can be observed within hospitals."

Patterns of maternity care in English NHS hospitals
H Knight, et al.
Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
2013

Read more here.

Exploring the dynamics of physician engagement and leadership for health system improvement

"The purpose of this literature review was to synthesize the existing knowledge regarding physician engagement and leadership and to identify key recommendations to enhance physician leadership skills, physician alignment with other components of the healthcare system, and the capacity to foster and improve the accountability of physicians for improved organizational and system performance."

Exploring the dynamics of physician engagement and leadership for health system improvement: prospects for Canadian healthcare systems
J-L Denis, et al.
GETOSS
April 2013

Read more here.

QUality, Efficiency, Safety, Transparency

"QUEST® — QUality, Efficiency, Safety and Transparency — is the largest multidimensional and multiyear collaborative designed to help hospitals and health systems reliably deliver the most efficient, effective and caring experience for every patient, every single time."

QUEST®: High-performing hospitals
Premier
March 2013

Read more here.

Top tips to overcome the challenge of commissioning diagnostic services

"This short guide presents top tips for commissioners to meet the most common challenges in the delivery of diagnostic services."

Top tips to overcome the challenge of commissioning diagnostic services
I Barnes, E Denton, S Hill, R Valori
NHS Improvement - Diagnostics
March 2013

Read more here.

Rating providers for quality

"Our analysis suggests that there is a clear gap in the provision of clearly presented, comprehensive and trusted information on the quality of care of providers which might properly inform the public and users about the quality of care, as well as improve the accountability of providers to the public."

Rating providers for quality: a policy worth pursuing?
Nuffield Trust
March 2013

Read the full report here or the summary here.

Using aggregate measures to assess the quality of NHS hospitals

"Quality in the NHS is complex, with information often resting in different places in different formats, with little or no linkage or context."

Quality at a glance: using aggregate measures to assess the quality of NHS hospitals
MHP Health Mandate
March 2013

Read more here.