Helping hospitals deliver better care: a new toolkit for quality improvement

"The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) contracted with a team of researchers from RAND and the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC), a large collection of academic medical centers, to develop a toolkit for hospitals to support their quality improvement efforts based on the AHRQ quality indicators."

Helping hospitals deliver better care: a new toolkit for quality improvement
RAND Health
May 2012

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Access the toolkit here.

Evaluation of the national Cleanyourhands campaign to reduce infection in hospitals

"The Cleanyourhands campaign was associated with sustained increases in hospital procurement of alcohol rub and soap, which the results suggest has an important role in reducing rates of some healthcare associated infections."

Evaluation of the national Cleanyourhands campaign to reduce Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia and Clostridium difficile infection in hospitals in England and Wales by improved hand hygiene: four year, prospective, ecological, interrupted time series study
SP Stone, C Fuller, J Savage, B Cookson, A Hayward, B Cooper, G Duckworth, S Michie, M Murray, A Jeanes, J Roberts, L Teare, A Charlett
British Medical Journal, 2012, 344:e3005

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Cholecystectomy services redesign: reducing length of stay in hospital

"The benefit of reducing the length of stay by 1 day for patients undergoing laparascopic cholecystectomy saves more than 17,000 bed days across the NHS."

Cholecystectomy services redesign: reducing length of stay in hospital
NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement
March 2012

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Producing synergy in collaborations

"This paper describes a Norwegian hospital’s nutrition innovation that enhanced collaboration across and within the hospital hierarchy."

Producing synergy in collaborations: a successful hospital innovation
L Corwin, JH Corbin, MB Mittelmark
The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal, 2012, 17(1):5

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Self-management of diabetes in hospital

"The aim of the document is to improve the safety of the in hospital management of diabetes."

Self-management of diabetes in hospital
Joint British Diabetes Societies for Inpatient Care Group
March 2012

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Patient safety, satisfaction, and quality of hospital care

"Improvement of hospital work environments might be a relatively low cost strategy to improve safety and quality in hospital care and to increase patient satisfaction."

Patient safety, satisfaction, and quality of hospital care: cross sectional surveys of nurses and patients in 12 countries in Europe and the United States
LH Aiken, et al
British Medical Journal, 2012, 344:e1717

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Review of the evidence on falls prevention in hospitals

"To facilitate the development of a hospital falls prevention resource guide, we systematically reviewed and documented the existing evidence base for interventions to prevent falls in hospitals, provided an overview of the performance of existing tools with known measurement properties, and compiled available online resources."

Review of the evidence on falls prevention in hospitals: task 4 final report
S Hempel, S Newberry, Z Wang, PG Shekelle, R Shanman, B Johnsen, T Perry, D Saliba, DA Ganz
February 2012

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Merger mania and hospital outcomes in the English NHS

"Given that mergers reduce the scope for competition between hospitals the findings suggest that further merger activity may not be the appropriate way of dealing with poorly performing hospitals."


Can governments do it better? Merger mania and hospital outcomes in the English NHS
M Gaynor, M Laudicella, C Propper
The Centre for Market and Public Organisation
January 2012

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Can NHS hospitals do more with less?

"This report seeks to understand the factors that determine efficiency within hospitals and how hospital trusts can best make cost savings by improving efficiency, based on UK and international experience."

Can NHS hospitals do more with less?
J Hurst, S Williams
Nuffield Trust
January 2012

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Maturity of hospitals’ quality improvement systems is associated with measures of quality and patient safety

"From this data it seems that having a more developed quality improvement system is associated with lower rates of adjusted hospital complications."


Is the maturity of hospitals’ quality improvement systems associated with measures of quality and patient safety?
O Groene, N Mora, A Thompson, M Saez, M Casas, R Sunol
BMC Health Services Research, 2011, 11:344

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Report of the National Audit of Dementia Care in General Hospitals 2011

"The aim of the audit was to examine the quality of care received by people with dementia in the general hospital."


Report of the National Audit of Dementia Care in General Hospitals 2011
Royal College of Psychiatrists
December 2011

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Governing public hospitals

"For hospital governance to be effective, it must incorporate two powerful and well-developed lines of health sector logic: on the one hand, national health policy and objectives; on the other, operational hospital management."

Governing public hospitals: reform strategies and the movement towards institutional autonomy
Edited by RB Saltman, A Duran, HFW Dubois
European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies
November 2011

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Eliminating central line infections

"This report synthesizes lessons from four hospitals that reported they did not experience any central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) in their intensive care units in 2009."

Eliminating central line infections and spreading success at high-performing hospitals
S Silow-Carroll, JN Edwards
The Commonwealth Fund
December 2011

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Sharps safety

"RCN guidance to support implementation of the EU Directive 2010/32/EU on the prevention of sharps injuries in the health care sector."

Sharps safety
Royal College of Nursing
November 2011

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What makes a top hospital? Leadership

"To improve the efficacy of the NHS, good leaders will have to encourage staff to make sure that patients themselves can add value to their care."

What makes a top hospital? Leadership
P Robinson, J Tyndale-Biscoe
CHKS - part of the Capita Group
November 2011

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Antimicrobial stewardship: "Start smart - then focus"

"The aim of this guidance is to provide an outline of evidence-based antimicrobial stewardship in the secondary healthcare setting."

Antimicrobial stewardship: "Start smart - then focus": Guidance for antimicrobial stewardship in hospitals (England)
Department of Health
November 2011

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Quality and safety in European hospitals

"The 'Quality and Safety in Europe by Research' (QUASER) study will investigate how hospitals implement, spread and sustain quality improvement, including the difficulties they face and how they overcome them."


A longitudinal, multi-level comparative study of quality and safety in European hospitals: the QUASER study protocol
GB Robert, JE Anderson, SJ Burnett, K Aase, B Andersson-Gare, R Bal, J Calltorp, F Nunes, AM
Weggelaar, CA Vincent, NJ Fulop
BMC Health Services Research, 2011, 11:285

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Hospitals and care systems of the future

"This report will mobilize hospital senior leadership teams to consider the strategies they must deploy throughout their individual organizations to adapt and succeed in the future."

Hospitals and care systems of the future
American Hospital Association
September 2011

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Management of NHS hospital productivity

This is the 26th report of session 2010-11 from the House of Commons Committe of Public Accounts.

Management of NHS hospital productivity
House of Commons
March 2011

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Reconfiguring hospital services

"Reconfiguring Hospital Services: Lessons from South East London considers whether reconfiguration of hospital services is an appropriate response to the need to drive up quality and drive down costs."

Reconfiguring hospital services: lessons from South East London
K. Palmer
The King's Fund
March 2011

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