An audit report said that hospital productivity in England had fallen over the previous 10 years. Hospitals had used their increased resources to deliver against national priorities: but they needed to provide more leadership, management, and clinical engagement to optimize the use of additional resources and deliver value for money.
Source: Management of NHS Hospital Productivity, HC 491 (Session 2010-11), National Audit Office/TSO
Links: Report | NAO press release | Kings Fund press release | Guardian report | Public Finance report | Telegraph report
Date: 2010-Dec
Researchers examined the use and estimated costs of hospital and social care services for large groups of individuals at the end of their lives.
Source: Martin Bardsley, Theo Georghiou and Jennifer Dixon, Social Care and Hospital Use at the End of Life, Nuffield Trust
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Dec
A briefing paper examined how best to interpret hospital standardised mortality ratios (HSMRs), and how far they could be used as a reliable indicator of hospital quality by organizations, patients, commissioners, the media, and the public.
Source: Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratios: Their Uses and Abuses, NHS Confederation
Links: Briefing
Date: 2010-Nov
A think-tank report examined how the design of information influenced which hospitals patients chose. It concluded that simply allowing all information currently available about the quality of care to be put into the public domain would not result in people making more informed choices about their care.
Source: Tammy Boyce, Anna Dixon, Barbara Fasolo and Elena Reutskaja, Choosing a High-Quality Hospital: The role of nudges, scorecard design and information, King's Fund
Links: Report | King's Fund press release
Date: 2010-Nov
A report said that deaths in hospitals in England continued to fall, dropping 7 per cent between 2008-09 and 2009-10 in crude terms. The gap between the highest and lowest hospital-standardized mortality ratios had narrowed. Safety standards had improved, with higher rates of compliance with safety alerts and better reporting of errors. But 19 hospitals had significantly high overall mortality ratios, and 4 had significantly high ratios for deaths after surgery.
Source: Hospital Guide 2010: What makes a good hospital?, Dr Foster Ltd
Links: Report | Dr Foster press release | CQC press release | Patients Association press release | NHS Confederation press release | BBC report | Telegraph report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Nov
A new method was published (following a review) for calculating and using hospital mortality ratios across the National Health Service in England – called the 'summary hospital-level mortality indicators' (SHMIs). The indicators were intended to compare the observed number of deaths that actually occurred in hospitals with a statistical estimate of the number of deaths that might have been expected, based upon national average death rates and the particular characteristics of the patients treated in each hospital.
Source: Report from the Steering Group for the National Review of the Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratio, Department of Health
Links: Report | Consensus statement | DH press release
Date: 2010-Nov
The new coalition government announced new measures designed to end most mixed-sex hospital accommodation in England.
Source: Press release 16 August 2010, Department of Health
Links: DH press release | Mind press release | RCN press release | Sane press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Nursing Times report
Date: 2010-Aug
Researchers examined whether the introduction of patient choice and hospital competition in the English National Health Service in January 2006 had prompted hospitals to become more efficient.
Source: Zack Cooper, Stephen Gibbons, Simon Jones and Alistair McGuire, Does Hospital Competition Improve Efficiency? An analysis of the recent market-based reforms to the English NHS, DP988, Centre for Economic Performance/London School of Economics
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-Jul
A report said that the 'number one issue' facing the National Health Service in England was reversing the 'unsustainable' rise in emergency hospital admissions, following an almost 12 per cent rise in admissions over the previous 5 years.
Source: Ian Blunt, Martin Bardsley and Jennifer Dixon, Trends in Emergency Admissions in England 2004-2009: Is greater efficiency breeding inefficiency?, Nuffield Trust
Links: Report | Nuffield Trust press release | Guardian report | BBC report
Date: 2010-Jul
A paper examined the impact of competition on hospital outcomes. Patients discharged from hospitals located in markets where competition was more feasible were less likely to die, had a shorter length of stay, and were treated at the same cost.
Source: Martin Gaynor, Rodrigo Moreno-Serra and Carol Propper, Death by Market Power: Reform, competition and patient outcomes in the National Health Service, Working Paper 242, Centre for Market and Public Organisation/University of Bristol
Links: Working paper
Date: 2010-Jul
The new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government announced that hospitals would be subject to a financial penalty in cases of emergency readmission following treatment. It said that this would improve quality and performance, and shift the focus to the outcome for the patient, rather than the volume of activity paid to the hospital.
Source: Speech by Andrew Lansley MP (Secretary of State for Health), 8 June 2010
Links: Text of speech | DH press release | Kings Fund press release | NHS Confederation press release | BMA press release | RCN press release | Patients Association press release | Turning Point press release | Alzheimers Society press release | Nursing Times report | BBC report | Guardian report | Pulse report | Community Care report
Date: 2010-Jun
An audit report said that most private finance initiative (PFI) hospital contracts were well-managed, and that the evidence indicated they were achieving the value for money expected when the contracts were signed. There continued to be risks, however, to the long-term value for money of these contracts.
Source: The Performance and Management of Hospital PFI Contracts, HC 68 (Session 2010-11), National Audit Office/TSO
Links: Report | NAO press release | BMA press release | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Jun
The inspectorate for healthcare and social care published the results of the 2009 NHS Inpatient Survey, covering 162 hospital trusts in England. It highlighted big improvements in cleanliness and a decline in mixed-sex accommodation: but progress had been disappointing in some important aspects of care and in some cases the experience of patients had got worse.
Source: National NHS Patient Survey Programme: Survey of Adult Inpatients 2009, Care Quality Commission
Links: Report | CQC press release | NHS Confederation press release | RCN press release
Date: 2010-May
A paper examined the causal impact of competition on management quality in the hospital sector in England. It was found that management quality – measured using a new survey tool – was strongly correlated with financial and clinical outcomes.
Source: Nicholas Bloom, Carol Propper, Stephan Seiler and John Van Reenen, The Impact of Competition on Management Quality: Evidence from public hospitals, DP983, Centre for Economic Performance/London School of Economics
Links: Paper
Date: 2010-May
An article said that standardized mortality rates were a poor measure of the quality of hospital care, and should not be a trigger for public inquiries.
Source: Richard Lilford and Peter Pronovost, 'Using hospital mortality rates to judge hospital performance: a bad idea that just won't go away', British Medical Journal, 20 April 2010
Links: Article
Date: 2010-Apr
A think-tank report called for a reconfiguration of National Health Service services, away from hospitals and towards community service, in order to improve care and reduce costs.
Source: Nick Bosanquet, Thomas Cawston, Andrew Haldenby, Patrick Nolan and Nick Seddon, Fewer Hospitals, More Competition, Reform
Links: Report | Reform press release | BMA press release | RCN press release | Telegraph report | BBC report | Nursing Times report
Date: 2010-Mar
A study examined the impact of using primary care within or alongside accident and emergency services. It concluded that the use of primary care clinicians in accident and emergency departments could benefit patients where services were integrated and clinicians worked together. But the proportion of cases that could have been dealt with in primary care was low – perhaps as little as 10 per cent.
Source: David Carson, Henry Clay and Rick Stern, Primary Care and Emergency Departments, Primary Care Foundation
Links: Report | PCF press release | Pulse report
Date: 2010-Mar
An audit report said that there was 'unacceptable variation' in major trauma care in England depending upon where and when people were treated. Care for patients who had suffered major trauma, for example following a road accident or a fall, had not significantly improved in the previous 20 years despite numerous reports identifying poor practice, and services were not being delivered efficiently or effectively.
Source: Major Trauma Care in England, HC 213 (Session 2009-10), National Audit Office/TSO
Links: Report | Summary | NAO press release | NHS Confederation press release | RCN press release | CSP press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2010-Feb
