Driving improvement: Case studies from eight independent hospitals

This report draws on interviews with a range of staff from eight hospitals.

Each has made positive changes to drive improvements for patients. In each case study we highlight how staff describe the journey of improvement as they experienced it.

Together their stories share some common themes. They show that one of the biggest aspects to supporting improvement across all hospitals was robust leadership. Another is meaningful engagement with staff.

Leaders became more visible. They made an effort to listen to staff and bring them into discussions about changes and improvements. Strengthened governance processes supported learning from incidents and complaints - helping to identify and address risks. Alongside this we heard how efforts were made to adopt a “whole hospital” approach. Staff in different departments worked more closely together. And they could see their part in the wider system.

In some cases, lessons learned as part of the improvement process were shared across hospitals in the same group. Corporate support provided extra people and finances to back up local teams. CQC inspection reports also helped hospitals to prioritise actions. This helped them make quality improvement a fundamental part of what they do.