The state of maternity services in England

"Improving people’s experiences of maternity care therefore requires providers to hear and respond to user feedback, and to ensure that staff feel supported to provide the best quality care."

The state of maternity services in England: Policy briefing
G Paparella
Picker Institute
July 2016

Read more here.

Higher Quality Dementia Care

"In a programme of 3 linked studies, we investigated the impact of the QOF [quality and outcomes] dementia review on the quality of care received by those with dementia, focusing particularly on the interface between primary and secondary care."

Higher Quality Dementia Care: Policy & Research Briefing
P Kasteridis, A Mason, M Goddard, R Jacobs, R Santos
Centre for Health Economics
February 2016

Read more here.

The future of child health services: new models of care

"Different services and models of care for children and young people have been emerging around the UK, both within the Vanguard scheme and inspired by it. These models are emerging in response to a series of problems in current services for children and young people. This briefing describes the current state of child health and quality of care in the UK and how the emerging models are responding to these issues."

The future of child health services: new models of care
L Kossarova, D Devakumar, N Edwards
Nuffield Trust
February 2016

Read more here.

Do pneumonia readmissions flagged as potentially preventable by the 3M PPR software have more process of care problems?

"Among VA [Veterans Health Administration] pneumonia readmissions, PPR [Potentially Preventable Readmissions] categorisation did not produce the expected quality of care findings. Either PPR–yes cases are not more preventable, or preventability assessment requires other data collection methods to capture poorly documented processes (eg, direct observation)."

Do pneumonia readmissions flagged as potentially preventable by the 3M PPR software have more process of care problems? A cross-sectional observational study
AM Borzecki et al.
BMJ Quality and Safety 2015;24:753-763 doi:10.1136/bmjqs-2014-003911

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.

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.

The state of health care and adult social care in England 2014/15

"Many services have responded well, despite the increasing pressures, and managed to improve or maintain quality."

The state of health care and adult social care in England 2014/15
Care Quality Commission
October 2015

Read more here.

Improving UK health care

"Our Strategy sets out a new direction – we will be more grounded in the practical implications of policy-making, working closely with NHS staff and policy-makers to identify solutions to the challenges facing the NHS."

Improving UK health care: Nuffield Trust strategy 2015-2020
Nuffield Trust
October 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.

Home administration of intravenous diuretics to heart failure patients

"Originally a 2-year pilot programme to assess safe and effective ways for specialist nursing teams to administer intravenous (IV) diuretics to people at home or in a day-care setting, preventing hospital admissions and improving patient experience. Without this service patients would be admitted to hospital to receive IV diuretics."

Home administration of intravenous diuretics to heart failure patients: Increasing productivity and improving quality of care
Quality and Productivity case study
British Heart Foundation
June 2015

Read more here.

Mental Health Staffing Framework

"Mental Health Staffing: A Practical Guide has been developed as part of the ‘Compassion in Practice programme’ led by NHS England. It is based around standards set by the National Quality Board and is expected to inform national Mental Health programmes of work "

Mental Health Staffing Framework
Health Education West Midlands
NHS England
June 2015

Read more here.

Children and young people's survey 2014

"This is the first national children’s survey conducted by CQC. It represents the experiences of nearly 19,000 children and young people who received inpatient or day case care in 137 acute NHS trusts in 2014."

Children and young people's survey 2014
Care Quality Commission
July 2015

Read more here.

Improving occupational physicians’ adherence to a practice guideline:

"Although practice guidelines are important tools to improve quality of care, implementation remains challenging. To improve adherence to an evidence-based guideline for the management of mental health problems, we developed a tailored implementation strategy targeting barriers perceived by occupational physicians"

Improving occupational physicians’ adherence to a practice guideline: feasibility and impact of a tailored implementation strategy
MCW Joosen, KM van Beurden, B Terluin, J van Weeghel, EPM Brouwers, JJL van der Klink
BMC Medical Education 2015, 15:82  doi:10.1186/s12909-015-0364-8

Read more here.

People’s experiences of dementia care as they move between care homes and hospitals

"As the report makes clear, there are some examples of excellent care across hospitals and care homes in England. These are services that recognise that a personalised approach is the key to high-quality care for people living with dementia."

Cracks in the pathway: People’s experiences of dementia care as they move between care homes and hospitals
Care Quality Commission
October 2014

Read more here.

The dynamics of quality: a national panel study of evidence-based standards

"People with long-term health conditions do not always receive the health care they need, and so may suffer avoidable poor health. We aimed to find out if the quality of health care received by people in England had improved over 6 years, for four common long-term health conditions: cardiovascular disease (including heart disease and high blood pressure treatment), depression, diabetes and osteoarthritis."

The dynamics of quality: a national panel study of evidence-based standards
AC Hardcastle, LTA Mounce, SH Richards, MO Bachmann, A Clark, et al.
Health Service Delivery Res 2015;3(11)

Read more here. 

Accident and emergency survey 2014

"Read the results of our latest survey which asked people about their experiences of accident and emergency (A&E) departments in 2014."

Accident and emergency survey 2014
Care Quality Commission

Read more here.

Personalised health and care 2020

"Better use of data and technology has the power to improve health, transform the quality and reduce the cost of health and care services."

Personalised health and care 2020: Using Data and Technology to Transform 
Outcomes for Patients and Citizens - A Framework for Action 
National Information Board
November 2014

Read more here.

Effect of a national primary care pay for performance scheme on emergency hospital admissions for ambulatory care sensitive conditions

"We found relative reductions in rates of emergency admissions for conditions incentivised under the Quality and Outcomes Framework scheme, particularly for coronary heart disease and stroke."

Effect of a national primary care pay for performance scheme on emergency hospital admissions for ambulatory care sensitive conditions: controlled longitudinal study
MJ Harrison, M Dusheiko, M Sutton, H Gravelle, T Doran, M Roland
BMJ 2014;349:g6423

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.