Category: Value

Standards for members of NHS boards and clinical commissioning group governing bodies in England

Post author By Sarah Woodhall
Post date December 4, 2012

By Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (November 2012)

These standards, which apply to NHS England, cover three domains: personal behaviour, technical competence, and business practices, and put compassion and respect at the heart of NHS leadership.They were developed through extensive engagement with NHS board members, experts in leadership and management, and patients and the public. We also spoke to many organisations with an interest in the work, such as NHS Employers, the Institute for Healthcare Management, and the King’s Fund.

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General Practice Library Patient Experience Patient Satisfaction Value

Improving GP services in England: exploring the association between quality of care and the experience of patients

Post author By Sarah Woodhall
Post date November 30, 2012

By The King’s Fund (2012)

Using data from more than 8,000 general practices in England, this paper examines the association between patients’ perceptions about the non-clinical aspects of care and practice performance on measures of clinical quality. It identifies clinical effectiveness and patient experience as key domains of health care quality; that there is a correlation between positive patient experiences and higher QOF outcome scores; and that patients’ experience of using their GP services can affect their use and interaction with those services.

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Good Practice Library Secondary Care Value

Can sustainable hospitals help bend the health care cost curve?

Post author By Sarah Woodhall
Post date November 29, 2012

By The Commonwealth Fund (2012)

As policymakers seek to rein in the nation’s escalating health care costs, one area deserving attention is the health system’s costly environmental footprint. This study examines data from selected hospitals that have implemented programs to reduce energy use and waste and achieve operating room supply efficiencies. After standardizing metrics across the hospitals studied and generalizing results to hospitals nationwide, the analysis finds that savings achievable through these interventions could exceed $5.4 billion over five years and $15 billion over 10 years. Given the return on investment, the authors recommend that all hospitals adopt such programs and, in cases where capital investments could be financially burdensome, that public funds be used to provide loans or grants, particularly to safety-net hospitals.

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Alcohol Substance Misuse Substance Use Tobacco & Drugs Value

A fresh approach to drugs

Post author By Sarah Woodhall
Post date November 9, 2012

By UK Drug Policy Commission (2012)

In this report, UKDPC proposes a radical rethink of how we structure our response to drug problems. It provides an analysis of the evidence for how policies and interventions could be improved, with recommendations for policymakers and practitioners to address the new and established challenges associated with drug use. UKDPC aims to foster a fresh approach to drug policy: one in which evidence takes priority, creating light rather than heat in the debate on drugs, so that we can create an environment that works to reduce dependence on drugs, safeguards communities and delivers value for money.

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Library Payment by Results Value

Pay-for-performance in the United Kingdom: impact of quality and outcomes framework: a systematic review

Post author By Sarah Woodhall
Post date November 2, 2012

Gillam, S. et al. Annals of Family Medicine, 2012; 10(5): 461-468

Primary care practices in the United Kingdom have received substantial financial rewards for achieving standards set out in the Quality and Outcomes Framework since April 2004. This article reviews the growing evidence for the impact of the framework on the quality of primary medical care.

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Library Patient Safety Value

Not the Francis Report: a National Voices report on how to ensure safety and quality

Post author By Sarah Woodhall
Post date October 19, 2012

By National Voices (October 2012)

This report calls for greater urgency in improving patient safety and care quality. It warns that delays to the Francis Report could also create delays on improvements in care quality in the NHS and the report makes a number of recommendations for improving patient safety and the quality of patient care. These recommendations include greater patient and public involvement; the reorganisation of hospital services; and a drive towards integrated primary care.

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Library Value

The state of medical education and practice in the UK

Post author By Sarah Woodhall
Post date October 15, 2012

By the GMC (2012)

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CCGs Commissioning Library Value

Identifying "value opportunities" in local commissioning

Post author By Sarah Woodhall
Post date October 11, 2012

By Right Care (September 2012)

This case study from West Cheshire PCT and CCGs demonstrates the use of Right Care principles to identify service improvements that can generate savings for re-investment, service quality, and outcomes improvements. It combines the use of spend and outcome tools, analysis of variation, and programme budgeting with service reviews and business process engineering techniques to deliver reform, innovation and efficiency proposals. £7 million was generated across three service areas in one wave of service reviews, as part of a successful £15m QIPP programme. The approach has already been replicated in other CCGs in the region and has contributed to successful CCG authorisation panel reviews.

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Asthma CVD Liver Disease including NHS Health Checks Respiratory Disease Value

NHS atlas of variation in healthcare for people with respiratory disease: reducing unwanted variation to increase value and improve quality

Post author By Sarah Woodhall
Post date October 9, 2012

By NHS Right Care (September 2012)

In revealing the extent of variation in clinical activity and outcomes, the indicators presented in this new Atlas underline the substantial scope clinicians and commissioners have to improve outcomes by ensuring that all patients receive the quality of care that is delivered in the best-performing localities.

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Library Secondary Care Value

Patient-level costing: can it yield efficiency savings?

Post author By Sarah Woodhall
Post date October 8, 2012

By The Nuffield Trust (September 2012)

This report examines how, in an era of financial challenge, NHS trusts can make better use of cost information at the patient level, as the first step towards greater efficiency. The challenge faced by the NHS of achieving major efficiency savings highlights the desirability of improving the availability and scrutiny of data on the costs and outcomes of health care. Patient-level costing systems (or ‘PLICS’) were introduced in the NHS in the mid-2000s. This report highlights the key findings of a full report looking at the use of these computerised information systems in hospitals that were set up to track and enable analysis of the costs of care incurred by individual patients. The report examines whether the implementation of information systems for patient-level costing might lead to greater efficiencies.

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