Improving maternal confidence in neonatal care through a checklist intervention

"These results suggest that introduction of a simple checklist can be successfully utilised to improve confidence of mothers in being able to care for their newborn child. Further investigation is indicated, but this intervention has the potential for routine application in postnatal care."

Improving maternal confidence in neonatal care through a checklist intervention
D Radenkovic et al.
BMJ Quality Improvement Reports 2016;5: doi:10.1136/bmjquality.u210655.w4292

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Improving the management of iron deficiency in ambulatory heart failure patients

"In an attempt to improve patient and physician satisfaction we piloted an ambulatory outpatient service to deliver iv iron. We demonstrated that this service was feasible and more efficient as less time was required waiting for a bed or spent in hospital and was less costly."

Improving the management of iron deficiency in ambulatory heart failure patients
C Hayward, H Patel, C Allen, A Vazir
BMJ Quality Improvement Reports 2016;5: doi:10.1136/bmjquality.u209822.w4076

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Improving physical health for people taking antipsychotic medication

"The combination of interventions has created an improvement in monitoring and changes appear to be sustained throughout the project." 

Improving physical health for people taking antipsychotic medication in the Community Learning Disabilities Service
I Hall, A Shah
BMJ Quality Improvement Report 2016;5: doi:10.1136/bmjquality.u209539.w3933

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Reducing blood culture contamination rates in an Emergency Department

"Current guidelines advocate a contamination rate of 2–3%. From January 2013 to November 2014 inclusive, the contamination rate was 4.74% in our Emergency Department, responsible for initial management and investigation of over 40 cases of sepsis per month. A Quality Improvement team was created to try to reduce contamination rates to the recommended target."

A change of culture: reducing blood culture contamination rates in an Emergency Department
J Bentley, S Thakore, L Muir, A Baird, J Lee
BMJ Quality Improvement Report 2016;5: doi:10.1136/bmjquality.u206760.w2754

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Improving the quality of handover in a liaison psychiatry team

"Without guidelines handover between shifts is of a poor quality, and often lacks key information to allow colleagues to identify patients and prioritise need. Education of those performing these handovers did not produce any benefits, either immediately following its delivery or in longer term follow up. The implementation of a template to aid clinicians in recording this data did produce improvements and received positive feedback from doctors."

Improving the quality of handover in a liaison psychiatry team
J Brook, M Amaro Calcia
BMJ Quality Improvement Reports 2016;5: doi:10.1136/bmjquality.u206492.w3442

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Public health and prevention (Quality Watch)

"Against a backdrop of substantial changes to the way public health services in England are commissioned and increasing funding constraints on local government, this QualityWatch report provides an overview of public health outcomes in recent years."

Focus on: Public health and prevention (Quality Watch)
A Davies, E Keeble, T Bhatia, E Fisher
The Health Foundation, Nuffield Trust
April 2016

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Building Q: Learning from designing a large scale improvement community

"The report identifies lessons for anyone seeking to support improvement work across organisations or through networks, as well as those engaged in designing initiatives with many diverse stakeholders. It draws on a variety of sources including the independent real-time evaluation of Q undertaken by RAND Europe."

Building Q: Learning from designing a large scale improvement community
P Pereira, H O'Malley
The Health Foundation
May 2016

Read more here.