Wednesday 29 August 2012

Firms fined after workers exposed to asbestos at Kettering hospital ward

Firms fined after workers exposed to asbestos at Kettering hospital ward:
Two Lincoln companies have been fined after workers were exposed to asbestos during the refurbishment of a hospital ward. Evening Telegraph

NHS hospitals using innovative solutions to prevent missed appointments

NHS hospitals using innovative solutions to prevent missed appointments:
NHS hospital trusts have been using innovative, yet simple, ideas to reduce the number of missed appointments, contributing to an overall drop in missed outpatient appointments of over 250,000 last year.

Hospitals 'scored' on drug access

Hospitals 'scored' on drug access: Patients in England will soon be able to see if their local health authority is offering the latest approved drugs and treatments as scorecards rating hospitals become public. BBC News

One in three taking no exercise

One in three taking no exercise: Ministers are urged to do more to encourage people "off the sofa" as it emerges the amount of exercise we take has not changed over the last 10 years. BBC News

Quality profiles

Quality profiles: The practice profiles aim to enable commissioners to compare the
relative quality of their providers, to enable providers to benchmark
their performance against the national average, and to share with
patients and the public information on the quality of the services being
provided. Quality profiles have also been published for CCGs. They fit
into the new commissioning architecture of the NHS, and aim to support
the patient information revolution by putting this information freely
and transparently into the public domain.

One in 10 hospital appointments missed

One in 10 hospital appointments missed:

The Department of Health has revealed that one in 10 scheduled hospital appointments in England were missed last year.The DH said that although the total number of missed appointments had dropped by 250,000 since the previous year, it still cost them millions of pounds and caused delays in care for other patients.The government has encouraged hospitals to find ways of reducing the number of missed appointments.... Healthcare Today

Does smoking 'dope' turn you into one?

Does smoking 'dope' turn you into one?:

“Adolescents who are regular users of cannabis are at risk of permanent damage to their intelligence, attention span and memory,” reported the Guardian.
The news was based on an impressive and wide-ranging study of 1,037 New Zealand individuals who were followed from birth up to the age of 38.

NHS patient records to revolutionise medical research in Britain

NHS patient records to revolutionise medical research in Britain:
Scientists to hunt for lifesaving information buried in cradle-to-grave data collected by GPs and hospitals

A revolution in medical research in Britain is to give academics and the life sciences industry unparalleled access to the cradle-to-grave health records of about 52 million people in England.

NHS Commissioning Board 'struggling to recruit'

NHS Commissioning Board 'struggling to recruit': The health quango that will be tasked with spending a third of the NHS budget is struggling to recruit staff, it has admitted. The Daily Telegraph

Do some trusts deliver a consistently better experience for patients? An analysis of patient experience across acute care surveys in English NHS trusts.

Do some trusts deliver a consistently better experience for patients? An analysis of patient experience across acute care surveys in English NHS trusts.:
Related Articles
Do some trusts deliver a consistently better experience for patients? An analysis of patient experience across acute care surveys in English NHS trusts.
BMJ Qual Saf. 2012 May;21(5):381-90
Authors: Raleigh VS, Frosini F, Sizmur S, Graham C
Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Data were used from inpatient, outpatient and accident and emergency surveys in acute trusts in England to examine consistency in patient-reported experience across services, and factors associated with systematic variations in performance.

METHODS: Standardised mean scores for six domains of patient experience were constructed for each survey for 145 non-specialist acute trusts. Hierarchical cluster analysis was used to investigate whether and how trust performance clusters. Multilevel regression analysis was used to determine trust characteristics associated with performance.

RESULTS: Cluster analysis identified three groups: trusts that performed consistently above (30 trusts) or below (six trusts) average, and those with mixed performance. All the poor performing trusts were in London, none were foundation trusts or teaching hospitals, and they had the highest mean deprivation score and the lowest proportion of white inpatients and response rates. Foundation and teaching status, and the proportion of white inpatients, were positively associated with performance; deprivation and response rates showed less consistent positive associations. No regional effects were apparent after adjusting for independent variables.

CONCLUSION: The results have significant implications for quality improvement in the NHS. The finding that some NHS providers consistently perform better than others suggests that there are system-wide determinants of patient experience and the potential for learning from innovators. However, there is room for improvement overall. Given the large samples of these surveys, the messages could also have relevance for healthcare systems elsewhere.


Available online but requires an NHS Athens password.