Service improvement in blood sciences

"The vision for the NHS pathology services puts patients first by providing services which are:

• clinically excellent;
• responsive to users;
• cost effective; and
• integrated."

Service improvement in blood sciences: how to improve quality, delivery and efficiency for laboratory providers and their customers
NHS Improvement - Diagnostics
January 2013

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Current and future needs for hospice care

"This report provides evidence on what is known and still needs to be known about patients’ and families’ needs for hospice care towards the end of life."

Current and future needs for hospice care: an evidence-based report
N Calanzani, IJ Higginson, B Gomes
January 2013

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Quality in the new health system

"The NHS needs to embrace a culture of open and honest cooperation where individuals and organisations are transparent about the quality of care being provided to patients, and the whole system works collaboratively to share information, address concerns and raise standards."

Quality in the new health system: maintaining and improving quality from April 2013
Department of Health
January 2013

Care management programs to reduce hospital admissions and readmissions

"Three case studies illustrate the potential of care management programs to address this problem by improving care coordination and transitions among high-risk patients."

Gaining ground: care management programs to reduce hospital admissions and readmissions among chronically ill and vulnerable patients
D McCarthy, A Cohen, M Bihrle Johnson
The Commonwealth Fund
January 2013

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Closing the quality gap

"The overview describes the scope of the eight reports; describes the scope of the series by summarizing the quality levers, populations, interventions, outcomes, and other features across the reports; and discusses key messages by audience (patient/consumer/caregiver, health care professional, health care delivery organization, policymaker, and research community)."

Closing the quality gap: revisiting the state of the science
KA McDonald, C Chang, E Schultz
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
January 2013

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Design and use of performance measures to decrease low-value services and achieve cost-conscious care

"This paper gives an overview of performance measures that target low-value services to help physicians understand the strengths and limitations of these measures, provides specific examples of measures that assess use of low-value services, and discusses how these measures can be used in clinical practice and policy."

Design and use of performance measures to decrease low-value services and achieve cost-conscious care
DW Baker, A Qaseem, P Reynolds, LA Gardner, EC Schneider
Annals of Internal Medicine, 2013, 158(1):55-59

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Leading networks in healthcare

"In response to the apparent increase in the number of networks operating in healthcare in the UK, and having reflected on its own work with networks, the Foundation undertook some scoping work to assess the situation. The aim was to test new techniques for supporting networks that encourage quality improvement."

Leading networks in healthcare
The Health Foundation
January 2013

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