The authors offer opinions on diversity in the workplace. They cite their own research on attitudes and behaviors of employees in support of the contention that workers feel pressure from management to minimize their differences from others within their organizations. Managers are urged to be aware of their own implicit demands for conformity among employees
Monthly Archives: March 2014
Exclusive: Legal challenge threat over major NHS England redundancy plan – Health Service Journal Article
NHS England has been threatened with a mass unfair dismissal claim over plans to make around 900 commissioning staff redundant, HSJ has learned.
Use everyday technology to deliver extraordinary care – HSJ article
Everyday technology such as mobile phones and Skype can give patients more control of their care, helping them to fit their health needs around their daily lives.
Helping measure person-centred care – Health Foundation Report
Person-centred, individualised, personalised, patient-centred, family-centred, patient-centric and many other terms have been used to signal a change in how health services engage with people. This Health Foundation rapid review summarises research about measuring the extent to which care is person-centred.
Three key questions guided the review:
- How is person-centred care being measured in healthcare?
- What types of measures are used?
- Why and by whom is measurement taking place?
The review signposts to research about commonly used approaches and tools to help measure person-centred care. It aims to showcase the many tools available.
A spreadsheet listing 160 of the most commonly researched measurement tools accompanies the review. This allows users to search according to the type of tool, who it targets and the main contexts it has been tested in.
The report makes clear that there is no ‘silver bullet’ or best measure that covers all aspects of person-centred care. Combining a range of methods and tools is likely to provide the most robust measure of person-centred care.
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We’re Not Risk-Averse, We’re Variance-Averse – Discipline of Innovation Blog Post
Considers the role of variance aversion in the process of innovation. Finds that variance-aversion is ok, if your firm lives in a completely stable environment. But it is a problem if we suppress variance – because that only leads to big (usually unpleasant) surprises. When the environment that we operate in changes, we have two choices. We can adjust on a more or less continuous basis (innovation!) – this increases variance in returns, but it also reduces friction between our business model and the environment it operates within. Or there can be an attempt to suppress it. If we do this, the changes slowly build up pressure on our business model, until the pressure (and the business model) bursts.
Measuring success in health care value-based purchasing programs – RAND Corporation Report
Based on the findings from the environmental scan, literature review, and technical expert panels discussions, this report provides a set of recommendations for consideration that could serve to advance the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of value based purchasing programs to generate critically needed knowledge to guide policymaking.
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Effective networks for improvement – Health Foundation Report
Health Foundation report that presents the lessons from an evidence review and case study work undertaken by McKinsey Hospital Institute. Draws on the literature and empirical evidence about effective networks to describe the component parts of a successful improvement network.
While the review found no ‘one size fits all’ formula for successful network design, it did identify five core features of effective networks. These are:
- common purpose
- cooperative structure
- critical mass
- collective intelligence
- community building.
These features are interdependent, and interact to give a network energy and momentum. They ensure a clear direction, credibility and increased scale and reach, while enhancing knowledge, encouraging innovation and creating meaningful relationships. All five features are mutually reinforcing, and their combined effect enables quality improvement, learning and change to happen.
What can the UK learn from healthcare innovation in India? – Health Foundation Report
Reflections from an International Partnership for Innovative healthcare Delivery (IPIHD) study tour to India. Key to making innovation central were:
- Making efficiency a noble purpose
- Harnessing all the available assets
- Embedding continuous quality improvement
- Listening to your service users
Making our health and care systems fit for an ageing population
“Improving services for older people requires us to consider each component of care, since many older people use multiple services, and the quality, capacity and responsiveness of any one component will affect others.”
Making our health and care systems fit for an ageing population
D Oliver, C Foot, R Humphries
The King’s Fund
March 2014
(QIPP Article request full text from Trust Library Services or call 01942 822508)
Closing the NHS funding gap: Can it be done through greater efficiency?
Recently, the Health Foundation brought together senior health sector leaders to consider whether the NHS can close the £30bn funding gap through greater efficiency.
The discussion was stimulated by Monitor’s publication last year of Closing the NHS funding gap: how to get better value healthcare for patients, which highlighted the financial challenges facing the NHS in England. The discussion identified four key areas where there were opportunities to make significant productivity gains across the NHS by 2021 and beyond:
Link to report ‘Closing the NHS funding gap: how to get better value healthcare for patients’
http://www.monitor.gov.uk/closingthegap
(QIPP Article request full text from Trust Library Services or call 01942 822508)
What can the NHS learn from Marks and Spencer?
The appointment of Stuart Rose to advise on leadership in the NHS reminded me of a visit I made to Marks and Spencer 25 years ago during my first spell at The King’s Fund. This took place shortly after the Thatcher government published its plans to create an internal market in the NHS, introducing the separation between commissioners and providers. I wanted to understand whether the NHS could learn any lessons from how M&S related to the suppliers of the goods sold in its stores.
(Kings Fund Article request full text from Trust Library Services or call 01942 822508)