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Showing results for tags 'Quality improvement'.
Found 757 results
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Content ArticleDo you ever feel like you keep addressing the same healthcare issue over and over again, only to have it resurface? It can be frustrating to focus on individual symptoms or parts of the system and not see any lasting change. This is where systems thinking comes in - a holistic approach that allows you to see the bigger picture and understand how different parts of a system interact with each other. Find out more in this blog from Tara Thornton for the FutureNHS Community.
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Content ArticleThe Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System (PA-PSRS) is the largest database of patient safety event reports in the US. In addition to over 4.5 million acute care reports, the PA-PSRS database contains more than 396,000 long-term care healthcare-associated infection (HAI) reports. This study in Patient Safety aimed to look at trends in HAIs in long term care using data from the PA-PSRS database. The study found that there was an increase in the total number and rate of infections reported to PA-PSRS in 2022.
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Content ArticlePatients are vulnerable during emergency episodes outside the formal care sector, for example, care provided by paramedics responding to a stroke or heart attack at home. Yet much less is known about the safety of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) as compared with primary or secondary healthcare. This relative lack of information is important given there are aspects of EMS care that create unique patient safety challenges. This BMJ Editorial discusses how we can improve patient safety in the Emergency Medical Services.
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Content ArticleThe Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality provides an infrastructure that oversees, coordinates and supports patient safety and quality efforts across Johns Hopkins' integrated healthcare system. Their mission is to eliminate patient harm, achieve best patient outcomes at the lowest possible cost and share that knowledge through research and training The Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality leads regional, national and international projects that reduce preventable harm, improve patient and clinical outcomes, and decrease health care costs. They apply a scientific approach to improvement, employing robust measures and rigorous data-collection methods that can be broadly disseminated and sustained.
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Content ArticleIn this blog Aiden Fowler, the National Director of Patient Safety in England and a Deputy Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health and Social Care, reflects on progress made in implementing the NHS Patient Safety Strategy, four years on from its publication. He outlines some of the main programmes of work associated with this and considers their impact on avoidable harm in the NHS.
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Content ArticleThis paper from Roberts et al. examines the application of the Surgical Safety Checklist (SSC) within NHS hospital operating theatres England. The aim of the study, through a combination of open-ended questions, was to solicit specific information including views and opinions from operating theatre experts to establish from how the World Health Organisations (WHO) SSC is being applied, and therefore and why intraoperative ‘Never Events’ continue to occur more than a decade after the SSC was introduced. Participants were from the seven regions identified by NHS England. The intention of this paper is not to establish definitively whether the quantitatively identified themes; including a lack of training and engagement with human factors explains the increased presence of intraoperative ‘Never Events’. However, these themes, when subjected to methodological triangulation with the current literature, do appear consistent, and therefore provide an exploratory approach to inform research intended to improve safety in the operating theatre by informing policy and its application to safe practice ultimately towards quality improvements.
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Content Article
The Child Health Clinical Outcome Review Programme has produced this review of the barriers and facilitators in transitioning children and young people with complex chronic health conditions into adult health services. Based on data on children and young people with one of 12 complex conditions identified from a sample period between 1st October 2019 and 31st March 2021, the report concludes that there is no clear pathway for the transition from healthcare services for children and young people to adult healthcare services. The report finds that the process of transition and subsequent transfer is often fragmented, both within and across specialties, and that adult services often sit only with primary care. It argues that developmentally appropriate healthcare should be everyone’s responsibility, with adequate resources needed to allow this to happen. The Inbetweeners also calls for services to: involve young people and parent/carers in transition planning and transition to adult services improve communication and coordination between all specialties be organised to enable young people to transfer to adult services effectively, and provide strong leadership at Board and specialty level at all stages of transition and transfer. The report’s recommendations highlight areas that are suitable for regular local clinical audit and quality improvement initiatives by those providing care to this group of patients. It suggests that the results of such work should be presented at quality or governance meetings, and action plans to improve care should be shared with executive boards. -
Content Article
Join the HQIP Service User Network (SUN)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Jobs and voluntary positions
HQIP hosts a Service User Network (SUN) for people who are interested in contributing to improving the quality of healthcare services. Anyone with lived experience as a patient or carer is invited to join. The SUN was established in 2009 and has had over 40 patient and carer advocates working in an advisory capacity to HQIP. There is no commitment once you sign up and all opportunities will be shared via a newsletter, To register your interest, complete this form. HQIP will then send you regular updates about projects that you could contribute to. -
Content ArticleThe publication of a new single, shared improvement approach, ‘NHS Impact’, is an exciting milestone. It reflects recognition, at the highest level in the English NHS, that improvement principles need to be part of the mainstream approach to the challenges facing the sector. Penny Pereira, Q’s Managing Director, considers the new approach, its potential impact and what it means for members and others working to improve health and care in England and beyond.
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Content ArticleIn this article for the BMJ, John R Drew, an improvement and culture consultant and Meghana Pandit, chief medical officer at Oxford University NHS Foundation Trust, argue that quality improvement (QI) should be a core tenet of how healthcare organisations are run. They highlight that some of the conditions and assumptions required for QI are at odds with prevailing management practices, with staff feeling more valued and respected while going through the QI process. They discuss the following subjects and questions: QI as the basis of management When do QI and good management coalesce? So is QI just good management? How can we help leaders get on this path?
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The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Evidence Collections draw together evidence from important NIHR-funded and wider research. They aim to help people in policy and practice understand recent important research in a topic area. The most recent Collection is Maternity services: evidence for improvement. In this blog, one of the Collection's authors, Candace Imison, describes how it was framed by the findings from a recent investigation into failings in East Kent Hospitals’ maternity services. She focuses on some key messages from evidence on how to identify poor performance and provide effective board governance and oversight. -
Content ArticleDoes your manufacturing facility experience an undesirable frequency of costly product losses? Are recurring operational issues impacting productivity and morale? Do people believe the causes of these production issues are ‘human error’? Do Quality Differently will show you: How to take a systems-based risk management approach to create more operational success. Practical examples to guide improvement in your operations. Ways to apply comprehensive approaches that reveal and address the combination of factors that influence performance outcomes.
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Content Article
NHS Impact resources
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in NHS England
NHS Impact ‘improving patient care together’ is the term NHS England is using for the new single, shared NHS improvement approach. This includes the five components which form the ‘DNA’ of all evidence-based improvement methods, which underpin a systematic approach to continuous improvement: Building a shared purpose and vision. Investing in people and culture. Developing leadership behaviours. Building improvement capability and capacity. Embedding improvement into management systems and processes. When these 5 components are consistently used, systems and organisations create the right conditions for continuous improvement and high performance, responding to today’s challenges, and delivering better care for patients and better outcomes for communities. -
Content ArticleEnsuring organisations learn from patient safety incidents is a key aim for healthcare organisations. The role that human factors and systems thinking can have to enable organisations learn from incidents is well acknowledged. A systems approach can help organisations focus less on individual fallibility and more on setting up resilient and safe systems. Investigation of incidents has previously been rooted in reductionist methodologies, for example, seeking to find the ‘root cause’ to individual incidents. While healthcare has embraced, in some contexts, the option for system-based methodologies—for example, SEIPS and Accimaps—these methodologies and frameworks still operate from a single incident perspective. It has long been acknowledged that healthcare organisations should focus on near misses and low harms with the same emphasis as incidents resulting in high harm. However, logistically, investigating all incidents in the same way is difficult.
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Content Article
The term 'Gemba Walk' is derived from the Japanese word 'Gemba' or 'Gembutsu' which means 'the real place', so it can be literally defined as the act of seeing where the actual work happens. A safety Gemba Walk, or Gemba safety walk, is a safety walk integrated with the Gemba method, emphasising the continuous improvement of safety by watching the actions required to complete daily tasks and determine ways to make work safer. While a typical site safety walk through aims to maintain compliance with safety standards, a safety Gemba Walk focuses on looking for opportunities to continuously improve workplace safety. This article describes the Gemba Walk method and includes information on: What is a Safety Gemba Walk? What is a Virtual Gemba Walk? Why are Gemba Walks important? Benefits How to do a Gemba Walk Process How often should you do a Gemba Walk? Effective ways to do a Gemba Walk Examples -
Content ArticleThe NHS is at a critical juncture in its 75-year history. With finances as tight as they have ever been, and a workforce stretched to breaking point due in part to spiralling demand from an older and sicker population and a shrinking labour pool, it is clear that things cannot carry on as they are. The time has come to think and act differently – at every level of the health and social care system – and to do so at pace. This long read describes five guiding principles that should inform implementing the NHS Impact approach to improvement at provider, ICS and national level to maximise the chances of success in the current climate. We also present recommendations for provider organisation, system and national leaders on the steps needed to translate these principles into sustained improvements across ICSs.
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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. Stephen talks to us about his time as turnaround Chair of Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, how NHS boards can ensure they live their values and why creating a safe space to share concerns improves patient safety. -
Content ArticleThis case study published by The Beryl Institute looks at an initiative to collect real-time feedback on patient experiences at the Stanford Health Care emergency department in California. Previously, the department had sent a survey to patients well after their visit, but the team realised that capturing this information sooner was critical. Matthew Lim, Patient Experience Manager at Stanford Health Care describes the practical and replicable steps the organisation took in implementing a QR code-based feedback system. He describes the results, lessons learned and potential future developments.
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Content ArticleFor decades the NHS has collected routine data on millions of patients. In a world where big data has increasing value, the UK has an opportunity to truly leverage its health data assets to benefit people in the UK and across the world—both through better health and through the generation of more research and development and economic growth. This report by the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London provides a broad overview of the UK’s health data policy landscape. It identifies strategic and technical recommendations to move towards a health data policy ecosystem that allows clinical, societal or financial value to be more readily extracted from patient data.
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Content ArticleThis article in USA Today looks at how the Covid-19 pandemic has caused setbacks in hospitals' patient safety progress. It looks at data from a report by the US non-profit health care watchdog organisation, Leapfrog, which show increases in hospital-acquired infections, including urinary tract and drug-resistant staph infections, as well as infections in central lines. These infections spiked during the pandemic and remain at a five-year high. The article also looks at the case study of St Bernard Hospital in Chicago, which was rated poorly by Leapfrog on handwashing, medication safety, falls prevention and infection prevention, but then made huge progress in improving safety. It describes the different approaches and interventions taken by St Bernard.
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Content ArticleThe Learn from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) service is a new national NHS service for the recording and analysis of patient safety events that occur in healthcare, supporting the NHS to improve learning from the 2.5 million+ patient safety events recorded each year. All healthcare staff are encouraged to record patient safety events to support national and local improvement to make care safer for patients. This short video from NHS England introduces LFPSE.
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Content ArticleTargets have been applied to a wide range of public services over the past 40 years. This report analyses whether targets improve the performance of public services and the reasons for this, making recommendations on when and how government should set targets. It focuses on national targets and examines what evidence there is for how they have affected how efficiently public money is turned into outcomes for the public.
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News Article
Stepping Hill Hospital praised for A&E improvements
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A hospital rated inadequate by inspectors two years ago has been praised for making improvements. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has welcomed changes in urgent and emergency care at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, Greater Manchester. The trust said the report was a "testament" to its staff's hard work. The CQC's unannounced inspection in November was carried out to check improvements had been made since a previous visit in August 2020. Among the concerns highlighted previously were patients left at high risk of harm during periods of heavy demand, staff shortages and staff who were "not competent for their roles". The new report said inspectors found urgent and emergency care had improved from inadequate to good overall and for being safe and well-led. "It has gone from requires improvement to good for being effective and caring. Responsive has gone from inadequate to requires improvement," the report said. Karen Knapton, CQC's head of hospital inspections, said: "We acknowledge the efforts of the emergency care team at Stepping Hill Hospital. We found staff provided good care and treated people with compassion and kindness." "They gave patients, their families and carers help, emotional support and advice when they needed it. Also, the service has been tailored to meet individual needs, including those living with dementia or a learning disability. " Read full story Source: BBC News, 12 January 2022 -
News ArticleIn a Letter to the Editor published in The Times yesterday, the All Party Parliamentary Group on First Do No Harm Co-Chair Baroness Julia Cumberlege argues in favour of the work of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety (IMMDS) Review and its report 'First Do No Harm'. "Inquiries are only as good as the change for the better that results from their work." Read full letter (paywalled) Source: The Times, 5 January 2021
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News ArticleThe announcement on Friday by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) that it will bring criminal charges against an NHS trust for failing to provide safe care to a patient is a hugely significant milestone in efforts to bring about greater accountability and safer care in the health service. The CQC has had the power to bring such prosecutions against hospitals since April 2015 when it was given a suite of new legal powers to hold hospitals to account on the care they give to their patients. Bringing in the new laws, the so-called fundamental standards of care, was one of the most significant actions taken after the care disaster at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust, where hundreds of patients suffered shocking neglect, with some dying as a result. Prosecuting East Kent Hospitals University Trust over the tragic 2017 death of baby Harry Richford is a big step for the CQC and a consequence of the long-forgotten battles of many patients and families in Stafford who were told they were wrong in their complaints against the hospital. It will almost certainly lead to more calls for criminal charges against hospitals from families who have been failed. There are countless examples of NHS trusts not acting on safety warnings and patients coming to harm as a result. Just this week an inquest into the case of baby Wynter Andrews at Nottingham University Trust revealed fears over safety had been highlighted to the trust board 10 months before her death. At Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust there are hundreds of families asking the same questions as more evidence emerges of long-standing failures to learn from its mistakes. CQC's chief executive, Ian Trenholm, has provoked anger among NHS leaders and clinicians when he advocated taking a tougher line when trusts break the law. But it is unlikely the CQC will launch a slew of prosecutions. It has said it will bring cases only where it sees patterns of behaviour and systemic failings. That is the correct approach as healthcare is complex and single errors will sadly happen despite everyone doing their best. Read full story Source: The Independent, 10 October 2020
