Paul Bate

Amid a welter of simultaneous policy initiatives, treatment centres were a top-down NHS innovation that became subverted into a multiplicity of solutions to different local problems. This highly readable account of how and why they evolved with completely unforeseen results reveals clear, practical lessons based on case study research involving over 200 interviews. Policy makers, managers and clinicians undertaking any organisational innovation cannot afford to ignore these findings.

Amid a welter of simultaneous policy initiatives, treatment centres were a top-down NHS innovation that became subverted into a multiplicity of solutions to different local problems. This highly readable account of how and why they evolved with completely unforeseen results reveals clear, practical lessons based on case study research involving over 200 interviews. Policy makers, managers and clinicians undertaking any organisational innovation cannot afford to ignore these findings.

This challenging and highly practical book draws on the findings from an international study designed to help practitioners and researchers understand the factors and processes that enable healthcare organisations in the United States and Europe to achieve - and sustain - high quality services for their users. The in-depth case-studies from seven leading hospitals give an international, evidence-based outlook that focuses on both the organisational and cultural processes of quality improvement. Implication for research and practice are considered, and a checklist of possible challenges has been drawn up to help identify any 'gaps' in initiatives. Healthcare policy makers and shapers including hospital chief executives and NHS directors will find this book enlightening, as will healthcare quality improvement and service development researchers and professionals. Clinicians with an interest in quality improvement will also find much of interest.

This work includes a foreword by lynne Maher. Head of Innovation Practice, NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, University Of Warwick, Coventry. "Experience Based Design" (EBD) is a new way of bringing about improvements in healthcare services by being user-focussed. Facilities, healthcare professionals, carers, family and friends are all involved in the patient experience and systems and policies need to adapt to take this into consideration. By exploring the underlying concepts, methods and practices of EBD, this exciting guide offers a unique approach to healthcare customer satisfaction. It offers recommendations for the future and many interesting points for discussion. It will be of great interest to health and social care management, particularly directors of service improvement in hospitals and directors of nursing, health and social care policy makers and shapers, and quality improvement and organisational development specialists in healthcare. Patient groups and national organisations, too will find the book inspirational. 'Experience based design-you cannot do without it. Read this book and it will change the way you think about providing health services for ever.' - Lynne Maher.

This is a systematic review on how innovations in health service practice and organisation can be disseminated and implemented. This is an academic text, originally commissioned by the Department of Health from University College London and University of Surrey, using a variety of research methods. The results of the review are discussed in detail in separate chapters covering particular innovations and the relevant contexts. The book is intended as a resource for health care researchers and academics.