HRH Global Resource Center - United Kingdom

Managing Quality in Community Health Care Services

Fri, 05 Dec 2014 18:42:56 +0000

Community health care services provide vital care out of hospital for millions of people. From children’s services to care for older people and end-of-life support, the community sector plays a key part in meeting the challenges facing our health and care system. This report presents findings from a small-scale study into how quality is managed in community services. It explores how community care providers define and measure quality and recommends important next steps to support better measurement and management of quality. [from introduction]

Rethinking Resistance to ‘Big IT’: A Sociological Study of Why and When Healthcare Staff Do Not See Nationally Mandated Information and Communication Technologies

Fri, 21 Nov 2014 14:38:05 +0000

Our analysis focused mainly on the Choose and Book system for outpatient referrals, introduced in 2004, which remained unpopular and little used throughout the period of our research (i.e. 2007–13). We identified four foci of resistance: to the policy of choice that Choose and Book symbolised and purported to deliver; to accommodating the technology’s sociomaterial constraints; to interference with doctors’ contextual judgements; and to adjusting to the altered social relations consequent on its use.

The Role of Informal Networks in Creating Knowledge Among Health-Care Managers: A Prospective Case Study

Mon, 25 Aug 2014 13:59:48 +0000

Health and well-being services, in common with many public services, cannot be delivered by a single organisation and require co-ordination across several organisations in a locality. There is some evidence, mostly from other sectors, that middle managers play pivotal roles in this co-ordination by developing networks of relationships with colleagues in other organisations. These networks of relationships, established over time, provide contexts in which managers can, collectively, create the knowledge needed to address the challenges they encounter.

Meeting the Support Needs of Patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome through Innovative Use of Wiki Technology: A Mixed-Methods Study

Mon, 25 Aug 2014 13:51:11 +0000

Using online discussion forums can have a positive impact on psychological well-being through development of shared group identity and validation of thoughts, feelings and experiences. This may be particularly beneficial to people with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), who often become socially isolated, lack mobility and face threats to their sense of identity. We set up a peer-support online forum to identify the nature of support provided and to explore its development over time.

Developing Collective Leadership for Health Care

Mon, 14 Jul 2014 14:23:32 +0000

The [National Health Service] is confronted by radically changing demographic pressures and hugely increasing demands. Alongside these is the need to build public confidence after several high-profile scandals, to increase productivity and to promote innovation in health and social care. This all comes as public sector financial cuts are implemented on a large scale. How can health care organisations respond effectively to these challenges? [from introduction]

Empirical impact evaluation of the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel in Australia, Canada, UK and USA.

Mon, 07 Jul 2014 14:55:37 +0000

The active recruitment of health workers from developing countries to developed countries has become a major threat to global health. In an effort to manage this migration, the 63rd World Health Assembly adopted the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel in May 2010. While the Code has been lauded as the first globally-applicable regulatory framework for health worker recruitment, its impact has yet to be evaluated.

On the Buses: a Mixed-Method Evaluation of the Impact of Free Bus Travel for Young People on the Public Health

Fri, 06 Jun 2014 14:54:37 +0000

To evaluate the impact of free bus travel for young people in London on the public health. Specifically, to provide empirical evidence for the impact of this ‘natural experiment’ on health outcomes and behaviours (e.g. injuries, active travel) for young people; explore the effects on the determinants of health; identify the effects on older citizens of increased access to bus travel for young people and to identify whether or not the intervention represented value for money. [from abstract]

Being a Manager, Becoming a Professional? A Case Study and Interview-Based Exploration of the Use of Management Knowledge Across Communities of practice in health-care organisations

Fri, 06 Jun 2014 14:49:10 +0000

This study aims to investigate how NHS middle managers encounter, adapt and apply management knowledge in their working practices and to examine the factors [particularly organisational context, career background and networks of practice (NoPs)/communities of practice (CoPs)] which may facilitate or impede the acceptance of new management knowledge and its integration with practice in health-care settings. [from abstract]

The Role of Informal Networks in Creating Knowledge Among Health-Care Managers: a Prospective Case Study

Fri, 06 Jun 2014 14:43:06 +0000

This study focuses on how health and well-being managers collectively create knowledge. [from introduction]

NHS productivity challenge Experience from the Front Line

Mon, 19 May 2014 19:48:25 +0000

The unprecedented slowdown in the growth of NHS funding in England since 2010 required the NHS to pursue the most ambitious programme of productivity improvement since its foundation…But the strongest pressure has been applied and felt at the front line, by hospitals and other local service providers, faced with squeezing more and more value from every health care pound. [adapted from abstract]