The annual National Institute for Clinical Excellence conference annually brings together a diverse group of people involved with healthcare, including clinicians, managers and patients: people who are responsible for raising clinical standards in the NHS and for implementing best practice. Innovation and excellence across the health service are again reflected throughout the 2005 edition of this book, highlighting the fresh thinking of health professionals who are at the front line in developing and delivering quality for patient care. This book will serve as a vital reference for all health professionals in raising standards nationally and locally, providing examples of best practice that are continually carried out throughout the NHS.
This volume, developed by the Observatory together with OECD, provides an overall conceptual framework for understanding and applying strategies aimed at improving quality of care. Crucially, it summarizes available evidence on different quality strategies and provides recommendations for their implementation. This book is intended to help policy-makers to understand concepts of quality and to support them to evaluate single strategies and combinations of strategies.
Second in a series of publications from the Institute of Medicine's Quality of Health Care in America project Today's health care providers have more research findings and more technology available to them than ever before. Yet recent reports have raised serious doubts about the quality of health care in America. Crossing the Quality Chasm makes an urgent call for fundamental change to close the quality gap. This book recommends a sweeping redesign of the American health care system and provides overarching principles for specific direction for policymakers, health care leaders, clinicians, regulators, purchasers, and others. In this comprehensive volume the committee offers: A set of performance expectations for the 21st century health care system. A set of 10 new rules to guide patient-clinician relationships. A suggested organizing framework to better align the incentives inherent in payment and accountability with improvements in quality. Key steps to promote evidence-based practice and strengthen clinical information systems. Analyzing health care organizations as complex systems, Crossing the Quality Chasm also documents the causes of the quality gap, identifies current practices that impede quality care, and explores how systems approaches can be used to implement change.
"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/
In an engaging and accessible introduction for student nurses, Introduction to Nursing Research: Developing Research Awareness explains the hows and whys of nursing research, stressing its influence on policy and improving patient care. The book delivers a comprehensive guide to the research process and addresses questions such as: What is research? What is its importance to nursing, nurses, patients, and policy makers? Why is it such an exciting discipline? Highlights: Emphasizes the practical use of nursing research and its role in developing clinical practice Includes case studies drawn from the authors' extensive experience in the field that illustrate how research is executed and implemented Features summary boxes, examples, and reader-focused activities to help develop awareness and understanding This book is relevant to all fields of nursing and all aspects of research. It is an essential resource for both the nursing undergraduate as well as nurses who are new to research.
This book provides a 'big picture' look at the progression of the NHS executive boards in their various guises. It questions how government should manage public services and health, and whether the constitutional principle of parliamentary accountability will always demand that a minister be ultimately in charge.
This text provides a history and personal commentary on analytical issues from 1984 until 2002 within the Department of Health. It covers often overlooked issues such as equity and resource allocation, risk management and emergency planning.
Be sure your skin-care treatments have strong evidential support Evidence-based Dermatology, Third Edition takes a unique approach to clinical dermatology by emphasising use of only the highest quality available evidence when treating people with skin diseases. Beginning with a toolbox introduction to the practice of evidence-based dermatology, it then covers the application of evidence for dermatological treatments across a wide range of ailments, including: • Common inflammatory skin diseases • Skin cancer, moles and actinic keratoses • Infective skin disease, exanthems and infestations • Disorders of pigmentation In addition, many of the rarer skin disorders are also included so as to provide comprehensive coverage of the topic. World-leading experts in dermatology follow a clinical approach for each disease, and as well as providing their expert guidance on the description and diagnosis of dermatologic disorders, they also discuss common dilemmas that clinicians face when considering the best approach to patient management. ‘Key Points’ accompany each chapter to provide a quick review of the most important points. Clinically oriented and practically focused, Evidence-based Dermatology ensures that your treatments are entirely patient-focused and fully supported by the very latest medical evidence.
Now published in its Second Edition, the Textbook of Clinical Trials offers detailed coverage of trial methodology in diverse areas of medicine in a single comprehensive volume. Praise for the First Edition: "... very useful as an introduction to clinical research, or for those planning specific studies within therapeutic or disease areas." BRITISH JOURNAL OF SURGERY, Vol. 92, No. 2, February 2005 The book’s main concept is to describe the impact of clinical trials on the practice of medicine. It separates the information by therapeutic area because the impact of clinical trials, the problems encountered, and the numbers of trials in existence vary tremendously from specialty to specialty. The sections provide a background to the disease area and general clinical trial methodology before concentrating on particular problems experienced in that area. Specific examples are used throughout to address these issues. The Textbook of Clinical Trials, Second Edition: Highlights the various ways clinical trials have influenced the practice of medicine in many therapeutic areas Describes the challenges posed by those conducting clinical trials over a range of medical specialities and allied fields Additional therapeutic areas are included in this Second Edition to fill gaps in the First Edition as the number and complexity of trials increases in this rapidly developing area Newly covered or updated in the Second Edition: general surgery, plastic surgery, aesthetic surgery, palliative care, primary care, anaesthesia and pain, transfusion, wound healing, maternal and perinatal health, early termination, organ transplants, ophthalmology, epilepsy, infectious disease, neuro-oncology, adrenal, thyroid and urological cancers, as well as a chapter on the Cochrane network An invaluable resource for pharmaceutical companies, the Textbook of Clinical Trials, Second Edition appeals to those working in contract research organizations, medical departments and in the area of public health and health science alike.
Quality of life is difficult to define and even more difficult to measure; as such, outcomes from nursing in continuing care are not easily articulated. Quality Assurance in Healthcare Service Delivery, Nursing and Personalized Medicine: Technologies and Processes offers a framework for measuring quality of service in the healthcare industry as it pertains to nursing, with insight into how new technologies and the design of personalized medicine have improved quality of care and quality of life. Assessment and feedback are a vital part of developing and designing personalized medicine, and this book details case studies and the latest research in the field of healthcare service delivery assessment. In addition to describing assessment methodology, the book is also a compendium of the latest research into new medical technologies.
