Health systems invest in diabetes quality improvement (QI) programmes to reduce the gap between research evidence of optimal care and current care.1 Examples of commonly used QI strategies in diabetes include programmes to measure and report quality of care (ie, audit and feedback initiatives), implementation of clinician and patient education, and reminder systems. A recent systematic review of randomised trials of QI programmes indicates that they can successfully improve quality of diabetes care and patient outcomes.2 Changes in surrogate markers such as blood glucose control, blood pressure or cholesterol levels are used to measure QI intervention effectiveness.2
However, investments in QI strategies are only worthwhile if the programmes that effectively improve care are sustained after trial completion.3. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
England's Chief Inspector of Hospitals has praised Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission.
Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust was rated as Good overall following an inspection which took place between January and March this year.
The child and adolescent mental health wards were rated Inadequate overall and for safe, responsive and well-led services, and Requires Improvement for caring and effective services.
The concerns primarily focused on West Lane Hospital, it was not delivering safe care. There were substantial and frequent staff shortages and staff did not adequately assess, monitor or manage risks to patients. When patients demonstrated higher levels of risk, staff did not follow processes and procedures to mitigate these through appropriate observation and engagement.
Driving improvement through technology’ includes examples from across health and social care. These range from apps that help people to take more control of their care, to digital systems for sharing care records.
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) have made significant improvements to their Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) indicators. They have done some great work to improve equality within their workforce. This is making a real difference in the working environment and the quality of care they provide.
Open access. Although previous research suggests that different kinds of patient feedback are used in different ways to help improve the quality of hospital care, there have been no studies of the ways in which hospital boards of directors use feedback for this purpose.
Audit and feedback improves clinical care by highlighting the gap between current and ideal practice. We combined best practices of audit and feedback with continuously generated electronic health record data to improve performance on quality metrics in an inpatient setting.. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust is among just a handful of organisations to feature in a new Care Quality Commission (CQC) report showcasing how mental health trusts have led by example in raising standards.
The CQC’s ‘Driving Improvement’ report focusses on a select few mental health trusts that, like Combined Healthcare, have achieved significant improvement in their CQC ratings.
During the weeks either side of the Easter holidays the Trust will focus on working differently, testing new ideas; and with local partners such as local authorities and other community providers keep ‘patient flow’ as smooth as possible.
This means resolving any blockages in a patient’s pathway on the same day to ensure the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford do not go into the following day with any unresolved patient issues.
This guideline covers assessing and reducing the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE or blood clots) and deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in people aged 16 and over in hospital. It aims to help healthcare professionals identify people most at risk and describes interventions that can be used to reduce the risk of VTE.
P. KUMAR, J. SHANKAR, and Y. NAGARAJU. The International Journal of Applied Control, Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IJACEEE), 1 (1):
1-12(May 2013)