Accounting for the quality of NHS output

This review provides the conceptual framework needed to select potentially appropriate characteristics of healthcare outputs to be included in a measure of NHS output. To this end the research team has evaluated three published sets of criteria developed by national bodies responsible for assessing healthcare system performance before seeking the opinions of UK experts on quality. From this process a criteria set was established, which was subsequently used to assess whether two separate set of quality indicators currently collected and reported for the English NHS, namely the NHS Outcomes Framework indicators and NHS Thermometer indicators, meet the identified criteria. A schema, including indicator name and source, data source, time period covered, definitions and purpose, was developed for each of the above indicators. Depending on the level of consensus among reviewers, a maximum of 17 indicators were short-listed for potential use as quality adjustors for NHS output, all of which are NHS Outcomes Framework indicators. 

Full Report: CHE Research Paper 153 (PDF , 3,261kb)‌

Other papers in the CHE Research paper series can be found at: CHE Research Papers