Sustaining Improvement. IHI White Paper

"This white paper presents a framework that health care organizations can use to sustain improvements in the safety, effectiveness, and efficiency of patient care. The key to sustaining improvement is to focus on the daily work of frontline managers, supported by a high-performance management system that prescribes standard tasks and responsibilities for managers at all levels of the organization."

Sustaining Improvement. IHI White Paper

R Scoville, K Little, J Rakover, K Luther, K Mate 

Cambridge, Massachusetts: Institute for Healthcare Improvement

2016

Read more here (requires registration).  

Managing the supply of NHS clinical staff in England

"Ensuring there are enough clinical staff with the right skills to meet the demand for high-quality, safe healthcare is essential to the operation of the NHS. There are risks to both the quality and cost of services if the supply of clinical staff is poorly managed." 

Managing the supply of NHS clinical staff in England
Department of Health, National Audit Office
February 2016

Read more here.

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. 

Emergency Care Improvement Programme

"The Emergency Care Improvement Programme will focus on helping 28 urgent and emergency care systems across England that are under the most pressure and will deliver real improvements in quality, safety and patient flow."

Access improvement tools, videos and more at the NHS Emergency Care Improvement Programme website.

Mental health crisis care review

Two reports have been published following a review of mental health crisis services. The reports consider aspects of quality, safety and effectiveness, as well as patient experience.

Mental health crisis review – experiences of black and minority ethnic communities
Jeraj, Samir, Shoham, Tara and Islam-Barrett, Farah
Race Equality Foundation
June 2015

Access the report here.

Right here, right now: Mental health crisis care review
Care Quality Commission
June 2015

Access the report here.

Using clinical supervision to improve the quality and safety of patient care

"The evidence linking clinical supervision to the quality and safety of patient care reveals that supervision is most effective when its educational and supportive functions are separated from its managerial and evaluative functions."

Using clinical supervision to improve the quality and safety of patient care: a response to Berwick and Francis
J Tomlinson
BMC Medical Education 2015, 15:103  doi:10.1186/s12909-015-0324-3

Read more here.

Facing the Future Together for Child Health

"Facing the Future: Together for Child Health represents a standard of care which children and their parents and carers can expect from the healthcare professionals looking after them. We hope that healthcare professionals will see them not just as standards to strive toward, but as a lever to continue to improve the safety, quality and sustainability of services." 

Facing the Future Together for Child Health
Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the Royal College of General Practitioners, Royal College of Nursing
April 2015

Read more here.

Use of nurse-led telephone follow-up as a sole method of assessing patients after nasal surgery

"The project demonstrates that nurse-led follow up is an efficient, effective and safe way of managing patient care post-nasal surgery."

Use of nurse-led telephone follow-up as a sole method of assessing patients after nasal surgery
P Sooby, P Kirkland
BMJ Quality Improvement Reports 2015;4: doi:10.1136/bmjquality.u208386.w3311

Read more here.

Commissioning services to support women and girls with female genital mutilation

"This documents sets out some key considerations when embarking upon the process to commission services to support FGM survivors. It reflects the standards and characteristics which have developed where commissioning in this area has been successful, and sets out particular elements which should either always be considered or provided."

Commissioning services to support women and girls with female genital mutilation
S Creighton, FGM Prevention programme team
Department of Health
March 2015

Read more here.

The endoscopy safety checklist

"We conclude that use of the endoscopy safety checklist is an opportunity for cost-effective quality improvement in endoscopy services. On-going attention needs to be given to encourage routine uptake of the checklist for its true potential on safety and outcomes to be realised."

The endoscopy safety checklist: A longitudinal study of factors affecting compliance in a tertiary referral centre within the United Kingdom
M Matharoo et al.
BMJ Quality Improvement Reports 2015;4: doi:10.1136/bmjquality.u206344.w2567

Read more here.

5000 safety fellows initiative

"Together with NHS England, we are working to develop an ambitious initiative that will connect and support people with safety and wider quality improvement expertise across the UK.
The initiative will help share effective improvement ideas throughout the health care system
We are working with organisations connected to those at the forefront of safety and quality improvement to launch the initiative in early 2015."

5000 safety fellows initiative

The Health Foundation
December 2014

Find out 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.

Quantification of the Hawthorne effect in hand hygiene compliance monitoring

"Hand hygiene event rates were approximately threefold higher in hallways within eyesight of an auditor compared with when no auditor was visible and the increase occurred after the auditors’ arrival. This is consistent with the existence of a Hawthorne effect localised to areas where the auditor is visible and calls into question the accuracy of publicly reported hospital hand hygiene compliance rates."

Quantification of the Hawthorne effect in hand hygiene compliance monitoring using an electronic monitoring system: a retrospective cohort study
JA Srigley, CD Furness, GR Baker, M Gardam
BMJ Quality and Safety 2014;23:974-980 doi:10.1136/bmjqs-2014-003080

Read more here.

Outcomes in patients with heart failure treated in hospitals with varying admission rates

"Heart failure admission rates exhibited variability between institutions, and patients who presented to emergency departments with low admission rates experienced higher rates of subsequent adverse outcomes in a single-payer health system."

Outcomes in patients with heart failure treated in hospitals with varying admission rates: population-based cohort study
RS Bhatia, PC Austin, TA Stukel, MJ Schull, A Chong, JV Tu, DS Lee
BMJ Quality and Safety 2014;23:981-988 doi:10.1136/bmjqs-2014-002816

Read more here.

Framework for responding to CQC inspections of GP practices

"From October 2014, the CQC will begin to roll out their new inspection regime to inspect and rate every GP practice in England by April 2016. Practices will be inspected across five key questions, considering the extent to which they are safe, effective, responsive, caring and well-led. They will be rated in one of four categories; outstanding; good; requires improvement; or inadequate."

Framework for responding to CQC inspections of GP practices
October 2014
Commissioning Operations, NHS England

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.

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.

Commissioning for quality: views from commissioners

"This resource seeks to provide support to commissioners in terms of their responsibilities for quality – CCGs and NHS England commissioners. It should be read alongside the ‘How to’ guide developed by the Quality Working Group on setting and delivering ambitions for improving outcomes as part of five year strategic planning."

Commissioning for quality: views from commissioners
NHS Commissioning Assembly
July 2014

Read more here.

NHS Choices: patient safety

A section on patient safety has been added to the NHS Choices website signposting patients to information on hospital performance and patient safety initiatives. 

Access the resource here.

Promoting engagement by patients and families to reduce adverse events

"While patient engagement in safety is an appealing approach, there is still little evidence regarding the particular details of implementation needed"

Promoting engagement by patients and families to reduce adverse events in acute care settings: a systematic review
Z Berger, TE Flickinger, E Pfoh, KA Martinez, SM Dy
BMJ Quality and Safety, 2014; 23: 548-555

Read more here.