Building common purpose: Learning on engagement and communications in integrated care systems

Building common purpose: Learning on engagement and communications in integrated care systems
NHS Confederation 15 December 2020

• “engagement and communications play a crucial role in supporting integrated care systems, and the partners that make them up, to achieve stronger relationships, more open and transparent ways of working, greater trust, more engaged staff and, ultimately, better outcomes for the public.”

Inadmissible evidence - patient feedback

Inadmissible Evidence
The Patient Experience Library 4 November 2020

• This report asks why healthcare seems unable to accept patient feedback as a valid form of evidence. The report points to a double standard which takes medical research seriously, while dismissing the experiences of patients as "anecdotal".

Patient Experience Platform (PEP)

The Patient Experience Platform (PEP) https://www.pephealth.ai/
PEP Health automates and accelerates the understanding of patients’ experience:

• Collects, listens to and understands what patients say about their care from across social media and online review platforms to create an empowered patient voice.
• Aggregates the millions of patient comments to each provider and creates a real-time score that is an accurate predictor of CQC inspection rating.
• All hospitals across the UK have their comments automatically collected since 2017 generating a range of benchmarking insights as well as quantifying variation in care from the point of view of the patients, their families and carers.
• Identifies many patient-safety issues that patients experience.
• The eight domains are: fast access to healthcare; unscheduled (emergency and urgent) care; maternity; oncology (cancer care); effective treatment; appropriate environment; emotional support; and whether care would be recommended.

Related references:
Public satisfaction with NHS maternity and A&E soars during pandemic HSJ 21 October 2020 (Subscription required)
Analysis based on the PEP tool.

Wisdom of patients: predicting the quality of care using aggregated patient feedback
BMJ Quality & Safety 2018;27:110-118.
Our Patient Voice Tracking System combines patient feedback from NHS Choices, Patient Opinion, Facebook and Twitter to form a near real-time collective judgement score for acute hospitals and trusts on any given date. Aggregating patient feedback increases the volume and diversity of patient-centred insights into the quality of care.

Patient-reported outcomes and experiences of digital health products

Guidance: Patient-reported outcomes and experiences study
PHE 19 October 2020

• How to use a patient-reported outcomes and experiences study to evaluate your digital health product.
• This guidance is part of a guide to evaluating digital health products.

Development, implementation and evaluation of an online course on evidence-based healthcare for consumers.

Development, implementation and evaluation of an online course on evidence-based healthcare for consumers.
BMC Health Serv Res 20, 928 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05759-5

• Description of a [USA] free, online course for consumers, Understanding Evidence-based Healthcare: A Foundation for Action (“Understanding EBHC”) offered through the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The course was found to be” a step toward meaningful consumer engagement.”

Reducing Health Inequalities for People Living with Frailty in vulnerable populations

Reducing Health Inequalities for People Living with Frailty A resource for commissioners, service providers and health, care and support staff
Friends, Families and Travellers 6 October 2020

• This resource shares practical recommendations and examples of how commissioners, service providers and health, care and support staff can successfully overcome barriers to healthcare for people at greater risk of frailty, including people experiencing deprivation, people who are homeless, people experiencing substance misuse, people with learning disabilities, LGB&T people, people with mental health needs, people from Gypsy and Traveller communities, and vulnerable migrants.

What We Know Now - what people with health and care needs experienced during the first wave of COVID-19

What We Know Now - what people with health and care needs experienced during the first wave of COVID-19
National Voices 3 October 2020

• This rapid review report outlines what people with health and care needs are experiencing as a result of the pandemic, what they feel truly effective and just treatment should look like, and how services should be designed and delivered. 
• The report presents an analysis of the findings of surveys carried out during April-July 2020 by and on behalf of 11 health and care charities in England, which collectively reached at least 66,600 individuals with long-term health and care needs. Some effects are likely to be long-term; some compromised people’s independence and ability to self-manage their conditions; and some were potentially life-threatening.

London COVID-19 Deliberation Report

London COVID-19 Deliberation Report
NHS England/Improvement London Region September 2020

• Over six virtual workshops (18 hours in total) 60 Londoners deliberated in depth on the challenges and opportunities facing the NHS by the COVID-19 pandemic, supported by clinicians from across the NHS in London. The process, an inclusive approach which also involved people from marginalised communities and those worse hit by the pandemic, was supported by National Voices, Healthwatch and numerous advocacy groups. 
• The research has culminated in the development of Londoners’ expectations, a set of guiding statements that are not binding, but rather are intended to assist the NHS when making decisions about services during the next phase of the pandemic.

Public perceptions of health and social care in light of COVID-19 (July 2020)

Public perceptions of health and social care in light of COVID-19 (July 2020)
Health Foundation 23 September 2020

• This report presents the findings of a survey commissioned by the Health Foundation and conducted by Ipsos MORI between 17 and 29 July 2020 (n=2,246 people).
• The results highlight a significant change in the public’s perceptions towards the Government’s handling of COVID-19 and the measures it has taken to tackle the outbreak so far.
• Findings include:
• the clarity of the Government’s current official guidance varies. 
• overall public confidence in using NHS services is returning,
• awareness of the Government’s contact tracing app has increased since May however, people from a black and minority ethnic background, women, those in the youngest and oldest age groups, routine and skilled manual workers, and the unemployed are all less likely to be aware of the plans – reinforcing concerns about a potential ‘digital divide’.
• Just over half of the public (52% in July compared to 62% in May) say they are likely to download the app. Younger people (18–24) are more likely to say they would download the app, use the app or self-isolate based on its advice (57%), while the oldest age groups (65+) are the least likely to do so (41%).

British public’s experience of the Covid-19 pandemic

Wellcome Monitor 2020: Covid-19 Study
Wellcome, NatCen Social Research August 2020

• This report looks at findings around the British public’s experience of the Covid-19 pandemic and their views on health information during lockdown. It examines 
• people’s experiences of the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown restrictions
• trust in different sources of information, including scientists and government
• the clarity of information on staying safe and minimising risk
• the perceived effectiveness and uptake of prevention measures
• Summary: Anxiety, Confusion and Distrust: How BAME people in Britain have had a worse experience of the COVID-19 pandemic

Operation Moonshot – mass testing

Operation Moonshot – mass testing

• First described by the Prime Minister at a press conference on 9 September based on mass testing which is quick and scalable. 
• “They use swabs or saliva and can turn round results in 90 or even 20 minutes. Crucially, it should be possible to deploy these tests on a far bigger scale than any country has yet achieved – literally millions of tests processed every single day.”
• “Our plan – this moonshot that I am describing – will require a giant, collaborative effort from government, business, public health professionals, scientists, logistics experts and many, many more.”

Covid-19: Government plans to spend £100bn on expanding testing to 10 million a day
BMJ 2020; 370:m3520 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3520 (Published 09 September 2020)

The black community and human rights

The black community and human rights
Joint Committee on Human Rights September 2020

• As part of the Joint Committee on Human Rights inquiry into Black people, racism and human rights, the committee commissioned research about black people’s experiences in the UK in relation to whether they feel their human rights are equally protected. The research found, among other things, that the majority of black people (more than 60 per cent) in the UK do not believe their health is as equally protected by the NHS compared with white people.

The rapidly changing NHS: communication in the age of coronavirus

The rapidly changing NHS: communication in the age of coronavirus
NHS Confederation 12 August 2020

• Research conducted by the Centre for Health Communication Research at Bucks New University, in conjunction with the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers examined the changing nature of communications during the pandemic and what learning there is for future practice.
• What is clear from this report is the vital and strategic role that communicators across the NHS have played in responding to the pandemic. The profession has mobilised and been at the heart of the response, working innovatively and creatively to adapt to the unprecedented challenge. Many of the innovations and new ways of working that have been introduced now need to be locked-in for the long term.

Summary

There is no single truth about Covid-19

There is no single truth about Covid-19
Understanding Patient Data 4 August 2020

• Why we need to look at qualitative data to really understand the impact of Covid-19 on people’s lives. 
•  National Voices has been collecting first person accounts via their Our Covid Voices project. And the Patient Experience Library has been collating and cataloguing the growing literature on people's experiences through the Covid-19 crisis.
• "We need a properly catalogued and freely accessible store of qualitative evidence - enabling us to check the stats against personal testimony."

Person-centred data collection methods to embed the authentic voice of people who experience health challenges

Person-centred data collection methods to embed the authentic voice of people who experience health challenges
BMJ Open Quality 2020;9:e000912. doi: 10.1136/bmjoq-2020-000912

• This review describes five of person-centred research methods which “enable the authentic voice of individuals who experience health challenges to be collected” – interviews, focus groups, citizen juries, photo elicitation and video-reflexive ethnography.

Mapping and working with marginalised communities

Mapping and working with marginalised communities
Ambition for Ageing July 2020

• A workbook to guide you in identifying and supporting seldom heard communities in your neighbourhood. Part of A spatial approach to working with marginalised communities.

Digital methods to enhance the usefulness of patient experience data in services for long-term conditions

Digital methods to enhance the usefulness of patient experience data in services for long-term conditions: the DEPEND mixed-methods study.
Health Serv Deliv Res 2020;8(28)

• A study to make feedback easier to collect and more useful to staff for improving services using text mining and a new toolkit to collect and present feedback. 
• The toolkit included iPad kiosks to collect data, guides for patients and staff, text-mining programs and new ways of reporting feedback. Staff were generally positive about the kiosks. Patients gave more mixed responses and the numbers providing feedback were small. Staff were positive about the feedback reports, but observations showed that no changes were implemented to services during the study.

Health and Care Video Library

Health and Care Video Library
NHS X

• A library of videos written by NHS clinicians and developed to work within care pathways. They have been professionally produced by Health and Care Innovations (HCI) There is an area for healthcare professionals containing “a set of tools and resources to help you maximise the impact of using the video library”.

Innovation and Communication Media in Virtual Teams – An Experimental Study

Innovation and Communication Media in Virtual Teams – An Experimental Study
IZA DISCUSSION PAPER NO. 13218 (May 2020)

• In a novel real-effort setting, we experimentally study the effects of different communication media on creative performance in a collaborative tasks. We find that creative performance significantly decreases when group members communicate via chat instead of face-to-face. However, we find no significant difference between performances of groups that communicate via video conferences as compared to face-to-face. Thus, we provide evidence that barriers to creativity in virtual teams can be mitigated by real-time video conference communication.

NHS Race and Health Observatory

NHS Race and Health Observatory [Press release]
NHS Confederation, NHS England 30 May 2020

• The NHS Race and Health Observatory, which will be hosted by the NHS Confederation, will identify and tackle the specific health challenges facing people from BAME backgrounds.