Gillian Leng - Achieving High Quality Care. Practical Experience from NICE

This edition first published 2014 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Achieving high quality care : practical experience from NICE / edited by Gillian Leng, Val Moore, Sasha Abraham.

p. ; cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-118-54360-3 (pbk.)

I. Leng, Gillian, 1960- editor. II. Moore, Val, 1962- editor. III. Abraham, Sasha, editor.

[DNLM: 1. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Great Britain) 2. Quality of Health CarestandardsGreat Britain. 3. Patient-Centered CaremethodsGreat Britain. 4. Quality Assurance, Health CaremethodsGreat Britain. W 84.4 FA1]

RA395.G6

362.10941 dc23

2014014237

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Cover image: Courtesy of NICE

1 2014

1. Sasha Abraham

   Tower Hamlets, London, UK

2. Nick Baillie

   Indicators, Health and Social Care Quality Team, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, Manchester, UK

3. Paul Chrisp

   Medicines and Prescribing Centre, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, Manchester, UK

4. Jennifer Field

   Health Education England, Leeds, UK

5. Danny Keenan

   Manchester Royal Infirmary, Manchester, UK

   University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

   Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery. Manchester Heart Centre,

   Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, UK

6. Gillian Leng

   National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, London, UK

   Division of Health and Social Research, King's College London, London, UK

7. Val Moore

   National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, London, UK

8. Julie Royce

   Implementation Support, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, London, UK

9. Sara Twaddle

   Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN), Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Edinburgh, UK

10. Elaine Whitby

    Education & Support, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, Manchester, UK

These are challenging times for everyone working in health care. In every country across the world, the demands and need for care far outstrip the resources available. The complexity of caring for an ageing population with multiple morbidities, the advances of the pharmaceutical industry and the aspirations of clinicians pose real challenges for all the caring professions.

And the phrase caring profession is much more than a clich. It is a description. Clinicians care. They want to deliver. They want to do the best for their patients. They aspire to real quality, real care.

Since 1999, NICE an acronym that now stands for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has been producing work that is designed to support every clinician in their aspirations towards quality. NICE's clinical guidelines exist to provide ready access to a comprehensive summary of the best available evidence for quality care, and is developed using international standards for guideline development, which includes a thorough assessment of the literature informed by the views of both patients and clinicians.

But the simple existence of guidelines is not enough, any more than owning a dictionary makes one a writer. Turning guidance into practice can be more than a little challenging, a reality that this book is designed to address. Our patients need and deserve the best care, and this book aims to improve care by helping clinicians use the very best available evidence. Using a deliberately practical approach, which uses numerous examples from everyday care, it covers every facet of quality whether organisational, theoretical, financial, motivational or practical.

As this book makes clear, the most common factors reported as preventing effective uptake are a lack of clinical leadership and engagement and a lack of resources and while finances are going to be tight for many years to come, NICE's implementation advice can offer transferable practical support.

And at a time of financial stringency, the use of evidence has to be a vital protection against waste. We owe it to our patients, and we owe it to the National Health Service (NHS), to use evidence, rather than simply go on doing what we have always done just because we have always done it.