Healthcare professionals use their innovative ideas to improve quality and save money

Eighteen teams from across the health service have been selected by the Health Foundation for their new innovative award Shine, to work on new approaches to deliver healthcare that will both improve quality and save money.

The Shine award will give the teams the opportunity to work on their innovative ideas to improve the health service and has been designed to help them readily test and try out their ideas in a way that can be measured and proven.

In the current financial climate, cost improvements will increasingly become a key focus for healthcare organisations. By stimulating fresh thinking, ideas and action among healthcare professionals, the Shine challenge will explore and test innovative approaches to releasing cash while improving quality.

The winning projects cover many different areas in the health service, including restructuring antenatal care for high risk pregnancies, reducing hospital admissions from nursing homes, reducing harm in mental health wards and improving chemotherapy services. 

Jo Bibby, Director of Improvement Programmes at the Health Foundation says, ‘We are delighted to be giving the Shine award to 18 teams with such innovative ideas that will improve the health service. Shine will help these teams to step back from the day-to-day to test their ideas, establish the evidence base for their innovative service improvements and encourage others to adopt the ideas.’

Previous research by the Health Foundation about whether improving quality saves money found that poor quality services are common and costly. Therefore, this year’s focus for Shine on improving quality while saving money gives health professionals the opportunity to take ownership of cost agenda and demonstrate how it aligns with clinical concerns and priorities.

During the 12 month programme, the 18 teams will be supported to put their approach into practice for the first time and gather the evidence of impact and effectiveness.

Each team has been awarded up to £75,000 to test out their ideas which will aim to improve quality and make savings within their service. All the projects will aim to deliver savings within the 12 month life of the award.

Shine aims to build a portfolio of well-described, real life examples available to other healthcare organisations, which will demonstrate how to improve quality while saving money.

The Health Foundation is delivering Shine with Springfield Consultancy, who will support the teams by providing consultancy and advice on management and evaluation strategies.

• More on the Shine awards