The Health Foundation – The improvement journey: Why organisation-wide improvement in health care matters, and how to get started (2019)

Summary

This report is a practical guide to developing an organisation-wide approach to improvement. It summarises the benefits of such an approach and outlines the key elements and steps that NHS trust leaders should adopt when pursuing this agenda.

Content

Key points:

• Building an organisation-wide approach to improvement is a journey that can take several years. It requires corporate investment in infrastructure, staff capability and culture over the long-term. 
• An essential early step is securing the support and commitment of the board for a long-term programme, including their willingness to finance the skills and infrastructure development needed to implement it.
• The report includes case studies of three English NHS trusts with an outstanding CQC rating that have implemented an organisational approach to improvement.