Quality of care

High-quality care can usually be defined in three parts: clinical effectiveness, safety and patient experience. We will be examining how NHS and social care organisations in England are improving quality and assessing their progress.

Overview

Related projects

Patient and Family-centred Care

Breaking new ground in improving the experience of hospital care for patients and their families, and the working lives of staff.

Patient experience

Patient experience means putting the patient and their experience at the heart of quality improvement. As well as our policy work on this vital measure of quality, we run a number of programmes that aim to improve patient experience in care environments.

See more related projects

The Francis Inquiry report

Anticipating the Francis Inquiry report

We analyse what the forthcoming recommendations might mean for the NHS, and what needs to change in the health system to protect patients.

Improving the quality of care for frail older people

Joanna Goodrich looks at the changes that can be made at all levels to significantly improve older people’s experience of care.

Reading Room & briefings

Want to know more?

For more resources on quality of care, including reading lists, database searches and useful web pages, visit our Reading Room.

Related briefings

See our briefings and responses on quality of care issues.

Featured publications

Developing supportive design for people with dementia The King’s Fund’s Enhancing the Healing Environment Programme 2009-2012

9 Jan 2013

Sarah Waller CBE

Abigail Masterson, Hedley Finn

Health policy under the coalition government A mid-term assessment

28 Nov 2012

Sarah Gregory, Anna Dixon, Chris Ham

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Blogs on quality of care

A matter of meaning

14 May 2013

Liz Saunders

Can we keep up with the demand for urgent and emergency care?

24 Apr 2013

Nigel Edwards

See more related blog posts

Relevant events

8 May 2013

Integrated care summit 2013

Venue:

The King's Fund

6 Nov 2013

Transforming patient experience Sixth annual conference

Venue:

The King's Fund, London, UK

See more related events

Relevant audio/video

Chris Naylor: volunteering in health and care

Michael West: developing cultures of high-quality care

Michael West

See more related audio/video

Useful articles

Are 'family and friends tests' useful: agree, disagree, neither, don’t know?

14 May 2013

Volunteers are a big local asset

14 Mar 2013

Richard Humphries

See more on this topic

Relevant press releases

Public satisfaction with the NHS stabilises after record fall

3 Apr 2013

The King's Fund's statement on the government's response to the Francis Inquiry report

26 Mar 2013

See more related press releases

Our work on this topic

Page

How should the NHS prioritise quality?

11 Sep 2012

Publication

Transforming the delivery of health and social care

6 Sep 2012

Chris Ham, Anna Dixon, Beatrice Brooke

Blog

Transforming health and social care: can the chrysalis become a butterfly?

5 Sep 2012

Chris Ham

Multimedia: Audio

Cynthia Bower: are we expecting too much from the regulator?

4 Sep 2012

Cynthia Bower

Multimedia: Audio

Anna Dixon: are we expecting too much from the regulator?

4 Sep 2012

Anna Dixon

Multimedia: Audio

Elisabeth Buggins: are we expecting too much from the regulator?

4 Sep 2012

Elisabeth Buggins

Article

Why is there variation in the NHS?

9 Aug 2012

Candace Imison

Publication

Older people and emergency bed use

9 Aug 2012

Candace Imison, James Thompson , Emmi Poteliakhoff

Blog

Use of emergency hospital beds: why is there so much variation?

9 Aug 2012

Candace Imison

Press release

2.3 million fewer overnight hospital stays needed if all areas perform as well as top 25%

9 Aug 2012

Pages