Open access. Lack of resources is often cited as a reason for long waiting times and queues in health services. However, recent research indicates these problems are related to factors such as uncoordinated variation of demand and capacity, planning horizons, and lower capacity than the potential of actual resources.
This study aimed to demonstrate that long waiting times and wait lists are not necessarily associated with increasing demand or changes in resources. We report how substantial reductions in waiting times/wait lists across a range of specialties was obtained by improvements of basic problems identified through value-stream mapping and unsophisticated analyses.
Following improved access and optimisation of the website, the NICE guidance app will no longer be available for download with plans to phase it out by January 2019.
Open access. International guidance on models of care stress the importance of good quality, continuous patient-provider relationships to support high quality and efficient care and hospital avoidance. However, assessing the quality of patient-provider relationships is challenging due to its experiential nature. The aim of this study was to undertake a systematic review to identify questionnaires previously developed or used to assess the quality of continuous relationships between patients and their provider in primary care.
Open access. To explore how the South-West Foundation Doctor Quality Improvement programme affected foundation year 1 (F1) doctors’ attitudes and ability to implement change in healthcare.
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Free access. All healthcare systems show variation in the quality of care provided, whether that means access to primary care services,1 ambulance response times,2 Accident & Emergency waiting times3 or treatment processes and outcomes.4–6 Monitoring this variation in quality can serve multiple purposes: informing patients about where best to seek care;7 allowing clinicians to compare their performance with that of their peers and thus identify targets for local-level quality improvement efforts, and supporting the development of national policy. Though, what all these have in common is a trust in the reliability of the data to adequately reflect healthcare quality—sometimes a questionable assumption.
In BMJ Quality and Safety, Hofstede et al 8 have addressed a common situation where providers (such as hospitals, general practices or community teams) are ranked according to their performance on a quality indicator.
As part of its work to improve staff engagement scores on the NHS Staff Survey, Lincolnshire Community Health NHS Trust has taken inspiration from the London Underground to develop a staff engagement tube map.
The case study looks at how the trust aimed to improve its Care Quality Commission rating and NHS Staff Survey score by focused on getting three areas right.
Open access. The growing interest in hospital users’ complaints appears to be consistent with recent changes in health care, which considers the patient’s voice a valuable information source to improve health care. Based on the assumption that the clinicians’ lived experience is an essential element of health care and to neglect it may have serious consequences, this study aimed to explore how physicians experience hospital users’ complaints and the associated mediation process.
Health inspectors say there has been a “significant improvement” in how public sector organisations work together to provide services for older people who need care in Stoke-on-Trent.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has revisited the city to look at how well older people – and specifically those over 65 – can move through the health and social care system following an initial inspection in September 2017.
This guideline covers diagnosing and managing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in people aged 16 and older, which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. It aims to help people with COPD to receive a diagnosis earlier so that they can benefit from treatments to reduce symptoms, improve quality of life and keep them healthy for longer.
Open access. South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust developed a system of weekend new patient reviews by higher trainees to provide senior medical input 7 days a week. To evaluate the effectiveness of these reviews, the notes for all patients admitted over 3 months were examined. The mean length of stay for patients before and after the introduction of the weekend new patient reviews were compared via unpaired t-test.
Y. Zheng, F. Liu, and H. Hsieh. International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (SIGKDD), page 1436--1444. New York, NY, USA, ACM, (2013)
Y. Zhou, and W. Croft. Proceedings of the 14th ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management, page 331--332. New York, NY, USA, ACM, (2005)