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Showing results for tags 'Quality improvement'.
Found 760 results
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Content ArticleThe West of England AHSN, in partnership with NIHR ARC West and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB), has created the Evidence Works online toolkit. Its aim is to provide step-by-step support for anyone working in health and care to find, appraise and apply evidence for service change or to develop new products, projects or pilots. The toolkit offers a useful starting point, to help you find and access the most relevant evidence and signpost you to more information and specialist help, should you need it.
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Content ArticleSafe and Sound is a podcast produced by the Barts Health Education Academy which aims to have honest, informative and educational discussions about patient safety and how it can be improved. In this episode, Dr Charlotte Hopkins, an HIV consultant who works in patient safety and Dr Annie Hunningher, a consultant anaesthetist and patient safety specialist, discuss the pros and cons between two different approaches to patient safety, Safety 1 and Safety 2.
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Content ArticleThis article describes a patient led a quality improvement (QI) project, working with a multidisciplinary team including pharmacists at East London Foundation Trust (ELFT). Their goal is to develop a better process so that he – and other patients – can get the medications they need in a timely manner. Katherine Brittin, MPH, Associate Director at ELFT says, “All of our work is about how we support service users to get involved to get the best from our services and for us to respond to what matters to them.” In the article, Brittin offers tips to health systems that may be inspired by ELFT’s example.
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Content ArticleCommentary from quality and safety leaders on the persistence of adverse events in care delivery — and where health care organisations should go from here. Further reading: The safety of inpatient health care Constancy of purpose for improving patient safety.
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Content ArticleThe Learning Together Evaluation framework for Patient and Public Engagement (PPE) in research is an adaptable tool which can be used to plan and to evaluate patient engagement before, during and at the end of a project. The Learning Together Framework can be used in multiple ways with the purpose of mutual learning and understanding by all partners. It is rooted in seven guiding principles of patient engagement defined by the patient-oriented research community: Relationship building Co-building Equity, diversity and inclusion Support and barrier removal Transparency Sustainability Transformation
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Content ArticleThe 20th-century statistician and quality scholar W. Edwards Deming proposed the “14 Points for Top Leaders” — a checklist of management principles for executives who wish to nurture improvement in complex systems. First on his list was “constancy of purpose for improvement.” In Deming’s view, when leaders slacken their visible commitment to a goal, progress slows or stalls. Donald Berwick discusses in this New England Journal of Medicine Editorial.
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Content ArticleImperial College Healthcare share a poster on their strategic goals and their values and behaviours.
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Content ArticleTransformative reflection is based on the idea is that people's perspectives on the world around them change when they reflect on new experiences that challenge their world view. NHS England (NHSE) says that reflection can be hugely valuable for patient care, staff morale and for doctors themselves. In this interview, Dr Alison Sheppard, a national clinical fellow who contributed a new NHSE guide on transformative reflection, talks about what transformative reflection is and how it can be helpful for doctors.
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Content ArticleIn this blog, Dr Timothy Ferris, NHS England National Director of Transformation and Rachel Power, Chief Executive at The Patients Association, look at patient access to health records. Dr Ferris writes about NHS England's ambition that patients are able to see their GP health record "at the touch of a button" and Rachel explains why it's important that patients have access to their records. Three patients also share why they find digital access to their records so useful.
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Content ArticleThe overall goal for the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) project is to meet the challenge of preparing future nurses who will have the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to continuously improve the quality and safety of the healthcare systems they work in. This webpage outlines the competencies in the QSEN competency framework: Patient-Centered Care Teamwork and Collaboration Evidence-based Practice (EBP) Quality Improvement (QI) Safety Informatics
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EventJoin this webinar for presentations and a Q&A on The Positive Approaches to Safety. This webinar will describe some of the limitations of the traditional safety paradigm - to only explore and fix problems – and the idea that this misses vital opportunities to learn from what we do well or indeed to learn from everything. The faculty of this webinar has been instrumental in the development of the Learning from Excellence Quality Improvement methodology and the application of Appreciative Inquiry. Speakers: 1. Dr. Adrian Plunkett, consultant paediatric intensivist at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, founder of Learning from Excellence (LfE) (UK) 2. Dr. Chris Turner, consultant in emergency medicine at UHCW NHS Trust and co-founder of Civility Saves Lives (UK) 3. Prof. Suzette Woodward – highly respected healthcare safety expert, Board member at the National Patient Safety Agency and NHS Resolution (UK) Register
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Content Article
This is part of our series of Patient Safety Spotlight interviews, where we talk to people working for patient safety about their role and what motivates them. Lesley talks to us about how personal stories enrich our understanding of data, drive real quality improvement and remind us that healthcare is all about people. She also explains how her own personal experience drives her work to improve healthcare experiences for patients and their families. -
Content ArticleThis guidance outlines the Care Quality Commission's (CQC's) approach to assessing integrated care systems (ICSs). It includes information on how these assessments will be carried out. The guidance focuses on: Themes and quality statements Evidence categories How we will assess integrated care systems Reporting and sharing information Intervention and escalation
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EventuntilWhat we are witnessing across the NHS is the Mid Staffs scandal playing out at national level, if not worse. At the beginning of 2023, Sir Robert Francis and Rachel Power, Chief Executive of the Patients Association, set out their concerns about the ‘disaster unfolding in the NHS’ in a letter to the Secretary of State for Heath and Social Care. With the NHS currently focusing on productivity, despite staff burnout and workforce shortages; operational performance, despite the growing backlog; and financial control, despite significant financial restraints, how can the NHS ensure quality across its services? 10 years on from Sir Robert Francis’ inquiry into the failings in care at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, workforce shortages and significant financial restraints, this event will explore what quality looks like to service users, and how staff and organisations can deliver quality care during periods of extreme pressure and demand. Register
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Content Article
Patient Safety Commissioner for England update (22 March 2023)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in England
This article* is an update from Dr Henrietta Hughes, Patient Safety Commissioner for England. -
Content ArticleThe ‘improvement’ of healthcare is now established and growing as a field of research and practice. This article by Cribb et al., based on qualitative data from interviews with 21 senior leaders in this field, analyses the growth of improvement expertise as not simply an expansion but also a multiplication of ‘ways of knowing’. It illustrates how healthcare improvement is an area where contests about relevant kinds of knowledge, approaches and purposes proliferate and intersect. One dimension of this story relates to the increasing relevance of sociological expertise—both as a disciplinary contributor to this arena of research and practice and as a spur to reflexive critique. The analysis highlights the threat of persistent hierarchies within improvement expertise reproducing and amplifying restricted conceptions of both improvement and ‘better’ healthcare.
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Content Article
Mandy Anderton is a Clinical Nurse specialising in learning disability and a hub Topic Leader. Last month we asked her how GP practices can help improve health outcomes for people with learning disabilities. In this new blog, Mandy talks in depth about the cross-system programme they launched in Salford to improve the health of people with learning disabilities and reduce inequalities across primary care. Mandy shares their award-winning poster (attached), summarising the programme’s activities and outcomes, and gives her top tips for delivering a successful patient safety improvement project. -
Content ArticleThis document outlines the identity and strategy of the European Patient Safety Foundation (EPSF), an independent, public interest foundation based in Belgium.
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Content Article
WHO: Introducing the Patient Safety Friendly Hospital Initiative
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in WHO
The Patient Safety Friendly Hospital Initiative (PSFHI) aims to address the burden of unsafe care in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. It helps institutions in countries of the Region to launch comprehensive patient safety programmes, with assistance from the World Health Organization (WHO). -
Content ArticleCommunity hospitals are an important part of local health and care systems, yet there has been very little shared on their role and contribution during the pandemic. This project from the Community Hospitals Association sought to redress this and highlight the role of these local hospitals. This two-year project enabled staff to reflect on their experiences and innovations in their community hospitals during the pandemic in a systematic way that facilitated wider sharing and learning. It captures the experiences of staff working in UK community hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on positive impact changes.
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News Article
Urgent action ordered at maternity scandal trust
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The trust at the centre of a maternity scandal has been ordered to report on urgent improvements in services for women and babies, amid ‘significant concerns’ about the risk of harm. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) used its enforcement powers to issue the conditions on East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust, after it carried out an unannounced inspection last month. However, the “section 31” warning letter has just been made public, and the first deadline for the trust to report back to the CQC is Monday (20 February). The CQC said some of the problems it found were due to the labour ward environment – but others involved monitoring of women and babies whose conditions deteriorate and the risk of cross-infection due to poor cleanliness standards. “We have significant concerns about the ongoing wider risk of harm to patients and a need for greater recognition by the trust of the steps that can be taken in the interim to ensure safety and an improved quality of care,” Carolyn Jenkinson, CQC’s deputy director of secondary and specialist healthcare, said in a statement today. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 17 February 2023 -
Content ArticleLearn how one trust has applied staff engagement techniques as part of its continuous improvement programme.
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Content ArticleQuality improvement is a methodology used routinely in emergency departments (EDs) to bring about change to improve outcomes such as waiting times, time to treatment and patient safety. However, introducing the changes needed to transform the system in this way is seldom straightforward with the risk of “not seeing the forest for the trees” when attempting to make changes. This article in Annals of Emergency Medicine aims to demonstrate how the functional resonance analysis method can be used to capture the experiences and perceptions of frontline staff to identify the key functions in the system (the trees), to understand the interactions and dependencies between them to make up the ED ecosystem (“the forest”) and to support quality improvement planning, identifying priorities and patient safety risks.
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Content ArticleDr Gordon Caldwell shares how he changed his whole approach to ward rounds after seeing spaghetti maps of where a nurse walked during a shift. He cut down walking distance on rounds by creating a mobile office on wheels out of an old electricians trolley. See also: Making the ward a more efficient place: a qualitative evaluation of the impact of the Vista 90 trolley
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Content ArticleThis article explains the emerging role of simulation in improving quality and safety. It is part of the Cambridge University Press 'Elements of Improving Quality and Safety in Healthcare' series. The article covers: Healthcare Simulation as an Improvement Technique Definition and Description of Healthcare Simulation How Simulation Became Integrated into Approaches to Improve Quality and Safety Simulation in Action Exploring Working Environments and the Practices and Behaviours of Those in Them Improving Clinical Performance and Outcomes Testing Planned Interventions and Infrastructural Changes Helping Healthcare Professionals to Learn about and Embed a Culture of Improvement Critiques of Simulation Is Simulation an Effective Technique for Improvement? How Should We Integrate Simulation into Healthcare Improvement? Can We Build a Business Case for Simulation?
