Patient focus updates - 2 May 2013

New policy, guidance and initiatives from across the UK that focus on the patient perspective and experience. For more information about this theme see Quality and Safety eBulletin: Patient focus.

Some of the resources linked to are in PDF format - see how to access PDF files.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ): New AHRQ facebook pages help patients navigate treatment options. AHRQ’s Effective Health Care (EHC) Program has announced the launch of two new Facebook pages to help patients find unbiased information on treatment options and share these online resources with family and friends. The pages feature sections on diabetes; heart conditions; mental health; muscle, bone, and joint conditions; women’s health; and men’s health, as well as links to EHC summaries for consumers on additional conditions (American).

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ): PCMH Research Methods Series. The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) is a promising primary care approach that emphasizes comprehensive, coordinated, accessible care, with a systematic focus on quality and safety. AHRQ conceptualized and commissioned a series of briefs to expand the toolbox of methods to evaluate and help refine PCMH models and other primary care delivery interventions (American).

BBC Health: Shingles vaccine to be routine for people in their 70s. People in their 70s across the UK will be offered a vaccine against shingles from this September. Experts have been recommending routine immunisation against the disease, which causes a painful rash, for some years.

BMC Health Services Research: Group medical visits can deliver on patient-centred care objectives: results from a qualitative study. “Patient-centred care emerged in the late 1960s as a framework to guide providers and decision-makers towards the provision of more effective health care and better outcomes. An important body of literature has since emerged, reporting mixed results in terms of outcomes. To date, assessments of the effectiveness of patient-centred approaches have focused one-on-one consultations. The purpose of this article is to explore dimensions identified as key in the patient-centred literature in the context of primary health care services delivered in a group setting. Group Medical Visits (GMVs) offer a novel format for the delivery of patient-centred primary health care services, especially for patients living with complex morbidities”.

BMC Nursing: Next of kin’s experiences of sudden and unexpected death from stroke - a study of narratives. “Death always evokes feelings in those close to the afflicted person. When death comes suddenly the time for preparation is minimal and the next of kin have to cope with the situation despite their own sorrow. The suddenness is found to be stressful for the next of kin and communication both with healthcare professionals and information about what has happened has been found helpful. The aim of this study was to illuminate the experiences of next of kin from the sudden and unexpected death of a relative from acute stroke”.

British Medical Association (BMA): BMA prepares support initiative for GPs. The BMA is to launch an initiative to support GPs and patients through the challenges facing general practice. The drive, led by the BMA GPs committee, aims to provide GPs with resources to communicate with patients about pressures caused by contractual changes imposed on the profession in England.

DH: Government launches care comparison website for care services. New online information profiles that will help people to choose, compare and comment on care homes and other care services has been launched. The new profiles, part of the NHS Choices website, will create the most definitive online source of information on care services.
DH: First fully comprehensive free comparison website for care services goes live.
NHS Choices: How do I choose my care?

DH: Department of Health complaints performance 2013. Details of how the Department of Health performed in handling complaints during 2013.
 
DH: Mental health first aid training for veterans and their families. Up to 6,400 ex-soldiers, sailors and airmen and their families will be offered training to help veterans experiencing mental health problems. Veterans and their families, as well as members of service charities and others who work with veterans, will be given the opportunity to go on a course to teach the mental health equivalent of first aid skills and give people the knowledge and confidence to spot the signs that someone could be suffering and support them.

General Medical Council (GMC): What to expect from your doctor. The GMC has published its first guide for patients on what to expect from their doctor. The new guide is based on the GMC’s core guidance for doctors - Good Medical Practice. It explains the key duties of a doctor and how patients can help to create a good relationship with their doctor and get the most out of their consultations and treatments.

Guardian: NHS ombudsman: Ignoring patient complaints ‘risks new Mid Staffs’. Hospitals are risking a repeat of the Mid Staffs care scandal by ignoring patients' complaints, fobbing some off with inadequate explanations of errors and even lying about mistakes says the NHS's ombudsman. In an interview with the Guardian, Dame Julie Mellor has accused hospital boards of adding to patients’ pain and letting poor care continue unchallenged by doing too little to spot and stop serious failings.

Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI): Putting Patients at the Center of Care: Start by Shadowing. Patient and Family Centred Care (PFCC) expert, Anthony DiGioia, MD, a American practicing orthopaedic surgeon shares the best tool he knows for viewing care through the eyes of patients.

Institute of Medicine (IOM): Making the Case for Continuous Learning from Routinely Collected Data. The authors suggest that in order to achieve better health, patients and clinicians will need to view every health care encounter as providing an opportunity to improve outcomes. The paper cites widely-reported examples of routinely collected digital health data being applied to improve services, inform patients, avoid harm, and speed research. Developed by individual participants from the IOM's Clinical Effectiveness Research Innovation Collaborative, it asserts that patients and the public are the most effective advocates for resetting expectations that their data be used to advance knowledge and support continuous learning. Citing examples of efforts to engage patients and clinicians in continuous learning efforts, the authors see broader application of these approaches as critical to ensuring the success of a learning health system in achieving better care, lower costs and improved health.

NHS Ombudsman: The NHS hospital complaints system. A case for urgent treatment? Systemic problems leading to missed opportunities to learn from mistakes and make NHS hospitals better are highlighted in this report. A 2012-13 analysis of the main reasons why patients, their families and carers brought their complaint to the Ombudsman after their hospital has failed to deal with it include poor explanations, no acknowledgement of mistakes, inadequate financial remedy and unnecessary delays.
Press release: Hospitals must tackle service failure and build trust by dealing with complaints properly.

Public Health Agency: Alcohol, drugs and older people. This booklet is for older people (defined as those aged 55 or over) who are worried about their use of alcohol, illegal drugs and /or prescribed/over the counter medications.

Regional Voices: Resources to support voluntary and community sector (VCS) involvement in Healthwatch. These resources aim to support the development of Healthwatch as well as to promote involvement with the voluntary and community sector, and the communities it works with. They include an overview of Healthwatch for the VCS, a good practice guide, and recommendations on how the VCS can act as a key partner in local healthwatch.

Scottish Government: Consultation on independent advocacy – guide for commissioners. Advocacy has an important role to play in supporting people to express their views. This consultation seeks view on a revision to the Guide for Commissioners last published in 2010. The guide has been updated to reflect Commissioner's statutory responsibilities for the provision of independent advocacy.

VIPER: The VIPER research looked at opportunities for young disabled people to have a say in how health and social care services are run, designed and commissioned and found that they face significant barriers preventing them from having a voice when these decisions are being made. The new VIPER website showcases the research reports and recommendations alongside practical information, resources and young people’s views of the importance of their participation in decision making.