Quality measures "can improve quality of care but risk misinterpretation"

21 Jan - Greater use of quality measures in the NHS has real potential for improving the quality of care, but care must be taken to avoid misleading patients, distorting priorities and damaging staff morale, says The King's Fund. In its discussion paper, Getting the measure of quality, the Fund sets out the issues that should be considered in developing and using indicators for measuring quality. The Fund stresses the need to avoid misinterpretation and confusion by being clear about the different audiences for quality measures and how they will use them. It also suggests that the NHS should widen the scope of quality measurement to include measures of productivity, efficiency and inequality, as well as those that capture quality across patient pathways. © King's Fund

Taken from the RCP Health Information Digest.  If you'd like to sign up for regular updates from this and other news sources, email info.skills@medsch.ucl.ac.uk

Cochrane Evidence Aid: resources for Haiti earthquake

A selection of systematic reviews and their conclusions from The Cochrane Library on healthcare topics that our colleagues in aid agencies have reported as important at this time. These are signposts to systematic reviews that might be helpful to decision-makers. All countries in Latin America and the Caribbean can access The Cochrane Library for free via the Virtual Health Library BIREME interface (in English, Spanish or Portuguese).

http://www.cochrane.org/evidenceaid/haiti/index.html

Annual Evidence Update on Patient and carer involvement in chronic disease

The 2010 Annual Evidence Update on 'Patient and carer involvement in chronic disease' is now available.

If you cannot easily follow the link above, please access it via the collection’s home page:
http://www.library.nhs.uk/palliative/