A summit for safer care
Last April, at the BMJ International Quality Forum, we launched one of our most popular reports to date. It flew off our stands, all copies were gone by lunchtime on the first day and repeat ord...
Measurement and data: the Hard Truth
Today, the government published Hard Truths, its response to the recommendations of Sir Robert Francis, following his inquiry into the failures of care at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. It...
Shifting from counting what is measured to measuring what counts
The health service is awash with data – data about performance, processes, outcomes, staff and patients. There is a centrally dictated requirement to measure certain aspects of care, such as waitin...
A turning point for patient safety?
Fifteen years ago I was involved in developing a performance assessment framework for the NHS – an attempt to provide the public with a rounded analysis of their local NHS bodies. At the time, we w...
When it comes to person-centred care, do we need measurement or feedback? Part 1
The tendency to want to measure things has existed for as long as humans have walked the earth. More specifically, in the case of health and healthcare, recorded efforts to systematically measure c...
When it comes to person-centred care, do we need measurement or feedback? Part 2
Last week I wrote a blog sharing my thoughts on the problematic nature of measuring the person-centredness of our health services. In our collective efforts to improve care quality, we need to be a...
Has devolution improved NHS performance?
Health and health care policy have been a matter for the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland since devolution in the late 1990s. Among the cocktail of policies pursued ...
Data and patient safety - are we asking the right questions?
It’s been quite a year in patient safety policy. We have seen: Don Berwick conclude a review of patient safety in England recommending the use of local measures to act as ‘early warning sign...
Twelve tips for measuring improvement
Understanding what works to improve health care is vital in order to share and spread success and to ensure we learn from our mistakes. These tips will help you embed effective measurement into you...
Piercing the illusion
Probably most of us think we are doing a good job. We have the right experience, attitudes, values, knowledge, character. We go to work every day. We make progress. We do good. Or so we think. B...
