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Showing results for tags 'Organisation / service factors'.
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Content Article
PHSO: NHS complaints standards
Sam posted an article in Complaints
The NHS Complaint Standards, model complaint handling procedure and guidance set out how organisations providing NHS services should approach complaint handling. They apply to NHS organisations in England and independent healthcare providers who deliver NHS-funded care. -
Content ArticleThis document from NHS England offers a practical interpretation of the Managing conflicts of interest guidance, providing optional content to support organisations in amending local policies. The guidance: introduces common principles and rules for managing conflicts of interest provides simple advice to staff and organisations about what to do in common situations supports good judgement about how interests should be approached and managed Sets out the issues and rationale behind the policies.
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Content ArticleThe Natasha Allergy Research Foundation (NARF) has added its voice to a chorus of growing safety concerns about the rise in businesses operating out of people’s homes. NARF said urgent government intervention on food safety standards is required to deal with the subject that has gained increased attention during the coronavirus pandemic. Tanya Ednan-Laperouse, founder of Natasha’s Foundation, said the emergence of tens of thousands of at-home and dark kitchens during the COVID-19 pandemic raises fears about food safety, particularly for the two million plus people in the UK who have food allergies. “...we need ministerial intervention, laws to ensure businesses are regulated, inspected and rated, and an urgent commitment to boost resources targeted at food safety. The cost of failure for many families will be too high.” The Foundation was set up by the parents of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse who died in 2016 after an allergic reaction to sesame in a baguette. It has been instrumental in new labeling legislation, called Natasha’s Law, that will come into force in the UK beginning in October.
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Content ArticleIn 2020, the Scottish Government announced a National Review of Eating Disorder Services. This report has now been published and highlights inconsistent access to eating disorder services in Scotland and the need for greater support. All 15 detailed recommendations laid out in the review will be taken forward by an implementation group of relevant stakeholders, guided by a lived experience panel, including patients, their families and loved ones, and third sector representatives. Recommendations are categorised as follows: Recommendation 1: Covid-19 response Recommendation 2: Implementation planning Recommendation 3: Coordination of national activity and data collection Recommendation 4: Lived Experienced Panel Recommendation 5: Public health Recommendation 6: Self-help resources available to all Recommendation 7: Early Intervention Recommendation 8: Primary care Recommendation 9: Safe medical care Recommendation 10: Investment in specialist eating disorder services Recommendation 11: Workforce Recommendation 12: Education and Training Recommendation 13: Families and carers Recommendation 14: Inpatient eating disorder services Recommendation 15: Eating disorders research in Scotland. To read the full review, follow the link below.
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Content ArticleOn Thursday 18 March, the G20 Health and Development Partnership in collaboration with RLDatix held an Online Panel Discussion for the launch of the International Patient Safety Report: ‘The Overlooked Pandemic – How to Transform Patient Safety and Save Healthcare Systems’.
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Content ArticleAs part of the NHS family, NHS Supply Chain is prioritising patient and user safety as a core part of their approach to supplying clinical products to the NHS by raising standards and effective partnership working. Jonathan Devereux, Head of Safety and Innovation, heads up a small team focused on driving proactive action on safety complaints, building an innovation pathway and ensuring they drive safety into the agenda for future procurement. In this article for the National Health Executive he explains the work the clinical and product assurance team are doing.
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Content ArticleAt the recent Future of Hospitals event from Health Plus Care Online, Helen Hughes (CEO, Patient Safety Learning) Jenny Davidson (Director of Governance, King Edward VII’s Hospital) and Natasha Swinscoe (CEO, West of England AHSN) discuss some of the key current patient safety issues, challenges, and opportunities in the context the pandemic and beyond. They explore how the healthcare system has responded to COVID-19, reflecting on emerging innovations and new patient safety challenges. They consider the long-term impact of the pandemic on patient safety and on non-COVID-19 care and support.
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Content ArticleIn my tweets and posts I have suggested that patients themselves need to take more responsibility for the medicines they are prescribed. But what about vulnerable groups who may depend on decisions being made for them, and in their best interests? Whilst there are circumstances where antipsychotic (psychotropic) medicines are an appropriate option for people with autism and learning disabilities, these occasions are limited. In all cases the patient matters most, and any decision to prescribe must be part of a team based, patient-led decision, which is regularly reviewed.
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Content ArticleWe need a twin track approach in workforce planning – one for the medium-term and other for the long-term – writes Rob Smith, Director of Workforce Planning and Intelligence, Health Education England, in this HSJ article.
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Content ArticleThis article from the King's Fund examines the differences in health outcomes for ethnic minority groups, highlighting the variation across groups and conditions, and considers what’s needed to reduce health inequalities.
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Content ArticleRecently, NHS England and NHS Improvement published planning guidance for the year ahead, outlining six priorities for the NHS as it emerges from the pandemic. The guidance strikes a balance between prioritising covid response and recovery efforts and advancing the broader service transformation objectives of the NHS Long Term Plan. With NHS surgical waiting lists now standing at a record 4.6 million, it is not surprising that accelerating the restoration of elective care is one of the priorities. The elective backlog challenge is not a new one for the NHS, but addressing it has acquired a new urgency and scope. Clearing the backlog sustainably and equitably will require the NHS, as the guidance states, “to do things differently.” In this BMJ article, Jugdeep Dhesi and Lisa Plotkin what they think "doing things differently" must include.
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Content ArticlePatient safety has gained less attention in primary care in comparison to specialised care. Kongsvik et al. explore how local medical centres (LMCs) can play a role in strengthening patient safety, both locally and in transitions between care levels. LMCs represent a form of intermediate care organisation in Norway that is increasingly used as a strategy for integrated care policies. The analysis is based on institutional theory and general safety theories.
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Content ArticleThis resource from NHS England provides guidance on how to make improvements in any area that involves safety. The guide includes explanations and advice involving improvement projects, the process of collecting, analysing and reviewing data, the Model for Improvement and how to use it.
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Content Article
NICE: Audit and service improvement
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Improving systems of care
This resource from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence includes assessment tools that can be used to evaluate current practice and plan activity to meet recommendations, audit tools which can be used to improve care, a quality standard service improvement template (Excel), resource impact reports and templates that summarise the resource impact of implementing NICE guidance and service planning tools to help those with a role in the strategic planning or delivery of services for a condition (or set of circumstances) that are addressed by NICE guidance. -
Content ArticleThis review was undertaken as part of the remit of MBRRACE-UK to ensure that key learning and recommendations for changes to care and services for pregnant women during the second wave of the SARS-CoV-2 infection in the UK are identified in a timely manner in order to implement rapid change. The report’s authors reviewed the care of all pregnant and postnatal women who died with SARS-CoV-2 infection, and women who died and whose care or engagement with care was influenced by changes as a consequence of the pandemic between 1 June 2020 and 1 March this year. Fourteen women died with SARS-CoV-2 infection, ten from COVID-19 and four from other causes, three further women's deaths were influenced by changes as a consequence of the pandemic. The report identifies several themes affecting the care of pregnant and postpartum women in the context of the pandemic and suggests that there needs to be wider awareness of how best to treat pregnant and postnatal women with COVID-19.
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Content Article
HPMA newsletters
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Leadership for patient safety
The Healthcare People Management Association (HPMA) is the professional voice of HR in healthcare. Set up over 40 years ago, it has over 4,000 members ranging from HR directors and deputy directors through to trusts and CCGs. Its aim is to support and develop HR staff to improve the people management contribution in healthcare and ultimately improve patient care. -
Content ArticleIn 2019 the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) carried out a survey which evidenced the extent of non-consultant hospital doctors’ concerns about different aspects of their ability to deliver out of hours care. Respondents were also asked to give examples or aspirations of best practice. This report uses this survey data and examples of best practice to provide a proactive guideline to support trainee surgeons. The survey found that there were five key areas requiring improvement for nonconsultant hospital doctors when working OOH, specifically: a) electronic systems; b) supervision; c) training; d) staffing; e) facilities. This document considers the results of the survey to make recommendations on best practice that will support non-consultant hospital doctors and protect patients out of hours.
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Content ArticleCatherine Mitchell, Head of cost and value at Healthcare Financial Management Association, explains how NHS finance can take an active role in supporting the use of digital healthcare to transform services and drive value and efficiency.
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Content ArticleThis article, published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, looks at how outsourcing in health care has become increasingly common as health system administrators seek to enhance profitability and efficiency while maintaining clinical excellence. However, outsourcing clinical services often results in lower quality patient care, including patient harm, and compromises the values of the organisation.
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Content ArticleThis report describes the findings of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) review of children and young people’s mental health services. The report focuses on three main aspects of the mental health system for children and young people: People’s experience of and involvement in care How partners plan and deliver services that offer high quality care that can be accessed in a timely fashion How partners in the local area identify mental health needs and what they do to start the process of getting the right support for children and young people The CQC spoke with staff working across different parts of the system, children, young people, parents, families and carers. They also reviewed policies and procedures, and used ‘case-tracking’ to examine in detail how individual children and young people with mental health problems moved through the system.
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Content ArticleDelays to timely admission from emergency departments (EDs) are known to harm patients. In this study, Jones et al. assessed and quantified the increased risk of death resulting from delays to inpatient admission from EDs, using Hospital Episode Statistics and Office of National Statistics data in England.
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Content Article
Hospitals are in serious trouble (7 January2022)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Blogs
Omicron is inundating a healthcare system that was already buckling under the cumulative toll of every previous surge, writes Ed Yong in an article for the Atlantic. When a healthcare system crumbles, this is what it looks like. Much of what’s wrong happens invisibly. At first, there’s just a lot of waiting. Emergency rooms get so full that “you’ll wait hours and hours, and you may not be able to get surgery when you need it,” says Megan Ranney, an emergency physician in Rhode Island. When patients are seen, they might not get the tests they need, because technicians or necessary chemicals are in short supply. Then delay becomes absence. The little acts of compassion that make hospital stays tolerable disappear. Next go the acts of necessity that make stays survivable. Nurses might be so swamped that they can’t check whether a patient has their pain medications or if a ventilator is working correctly. People who would’ve been fine will get sicker. Eventually, people who would have lived will die. This is not conjecture; it is happening now, across the United States. -
Content ArticleAlthough debate continues over estimates of the amount of preventable medical harm that occurs in healthcare, there seems to be a consensus that healthcare is not as safe and reliable as it might be. It is often assumed that copying and adapting the success stories of nonmedical industries, such as civil aviation and nuclear power, will make medicine as safe as these industries. However, the solution is not that simple. This article explains why a benchmarking approach to safety in high-risk industries is needed to help translate lessons so that they are usable and long lasting in healthcare. Five successive systemic barriers currently prevent health care from becoming an ultrasafe industrial system: the need to limit the discretion of workers, the need to reduce worker autonomy, the need to make the transition from a craftsmanship mindset to that of equivalent actors, the need for system-level (senior leadership) arbitration to optimise safety strategies, and the need for simplification. Finally, healthcare must overcome 3 unique problems: a wide range of risk among medical specialties, difficulty in defining medical error, and various structural constraints (such as public demand, teaching role, and chronic shortage of staff). Without such a framework to guide development, ongoing efforts to improve safety by adopting the safety strategies of other industries may yield reduced dividends. Rapid progress is possible only if the health care industry is willing to address these structural constraints needed to overcome the 5 barriers to ultrasafe performance.
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Content Article
Quality health services: a planning guide (WHO, 17 November 2020)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in WHO
This guide from the World Health Organization (WHO) focuses on actions required at the national, district and facility levels to enhance quality of health services, providing guidance on implementing key activities at each of these three levels. It highlights the need for a health systems approach to enhance quality of care, with a common understanding on the activities needed by all stakeholders. The guide articulates the key actions required to improve the quality of health services for the entire population. It recognises that the path varies for each country, district and facility – stimulating the reader to consider multiple factors and entry points for action. This planning guide is for staff working at all levels of the health system (i.e. national, district and facility) who have a role in enhancing the quality of health services. It is also relevant to all stakeholders initiating and supporting action at facility, district and/or national levels both in the public and private sectors. -
Content ArticleA new study developed by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the European Commission draws out lessons for strengthening resilience to future health threats. The Health systems resilience during COVID-19: Lessons for building back better study gathers the evidence on how countries have managed (or not managed) to re-engineer how they work, the ways in which they utilise their resources and the methods they use to face and counter the pressures exerted by both COVID and non-COVID challenges.
