Features

2010 Hospital report cards 28th November 2010: To accompany our 2010 Hospital Guide we created a report card for every NHS Hospital using a number of measures we felt were important to patients. It's this data that we used to award our 2010 Hospitals of the Year.
2010 Patient experience 28th November 2010: Use this online survey to tell us what matters most to you and we will be able to tell you which hospitals do best. We have listed six aspects that comprise a good patient experience.
2009 Quality Accounts 29th November 2009: Dr Foster has created a report card for every NHS Hospital using a number of measures we feel are important to patients.
Mid Staffordshire Report Welcomed By HSMR Pioneer 25th June 2010: Dr Foster has welcomed the independent report, chaired by Robert Francis QC, into Mid Staffordshire Hospitals NHS Trust.
The Intelligent Board 2009: Commissioning to reduce inequalities 10th January 2010: Find out how well your local Primary Care Trust (PCT) serves your community health needs.
Dr Foster Health celebrates 1,000,000th visitor 9th January 2010: Dr Foster Health is free, requires no sign up and offers the most up-to-date quality assessments of all NHS hospitals using data collected and updated every year. Dr Foster Health was the first to publish hospital mortality rates (HSMRs) which are now used to assess NHS hospital safety and quality.
Heart Bypass Waiting Times Update 16th December 2009: A coronary artery bypass operation (CABG) - commonly known as a heart bypass operation - is a surgical treatment designed to restore blood flow to the heart. If you have blocked coronary arteries they will not be able to supply blood and oxygen to your heart. If blood flow is severely cut off or stops, your heart muscle can die and a heart attack may result.
Twenty facts you should know about our NHS hospitals 4th December 2009: The recent roll-out of hospital guidelines, operating checklists and incident reporting systems have still not created the safety culture that NHS patients would expect. The latest analysis from Dr Foster's Hospital Guide 2009 reveals the wide variation in safety standards among our hospitals, with patients often at risk from clinical errors and poor management.
How can you tell which hospitals are safest? 2nd December 2009: James Reason - Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Manchester - shares his top tips to help us identify hospitals that put patient safety at the top of the agenda.
Hospital Guide 2009 patient safety findings provoke fierce debate 30th November 2009: Dr Foster's Hospital Guide for 2009 has revealed that death rates in English NHS hospitals have fallen by seven per cent on last year, but that quality of care remains a postcode lottery.
Dr Foster's 2009 Hospital Guide - Focus on Patient Safety 29th November 2009: Dr Foster is proud to present the Hospital Guide 2009. The authoritative and independent guide to NHS hospital quality focuses this year on patient safety.
BBC's Today Programme discusses patient safety failings at Essex hospital trusts 27th November 2009: Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors have identified serious short-comings in the standards of emergency care, hygiene and cleanliness at Basildon and Thurrock Foundation NHS Trust, despite a 2008/09 assessment which rated the trust as "good" on quality of service and "excellent" for financial management.
Transurethral Resection of Bladder Tumour (TURBT) Surgery Waiting Times Update 25th November 2009: Find out about the latest waiting times and length of hospital stay for transurethral resection of bladder tumour (TURBT) surgery with Dr Foster Health
Dr Foster Health celebrates first birthday with new audit tie-up to improve NHS pain services 18th November 2009: Dr Foster Research and the British Pain Society have joined forces to carry out the first ever comprehensive audit of NHS clinical pain management services to benchmark quality and level of provision.
Transurethral Resection of the Prostate (TURP) surgery waiting times update 26th October 2009: Find out about the latest waiting times and length of hospital stay for Transurethral Resection of the Prostate (TURP) surgery.
Dr Foster shows fresh thinking needed on the week junior doctors start 23rd September 2009: Patients admitted to English hospitals in an emergency on the first Wednesday in August when junior doctors start work have a six per cent higher mortality rate than people admitted on the previous Wednesday.
Haemorrhoid Removal Surgery (Haemorrhoidectomy) Waiting Times Update 10th September 2009: Dr Foster Health publishes the latest figures revealing how long you can expect to wait for a Haemorrhoidectomy and how long you can expect to stay in hospital recovering.
Outpatient appointment no-shows cost hospitals £600m a year 9th September 2009: Missed outpatient appointments cost NHS hospitals in the region of £600m a year, data from Dr Foster and the NHS Information Centre have revealed.
Wisdom Tooth Removal Waiting Times Update 28th August 2009: Dr Foster Health publishes the latest figures revealing how long you can expect to wait for a Wisdom Tooth Extraction operation and how long you can expect to stay in hospital recovering.
Strictly Come Dancing's Craig Revel Horwood talks about the Boogie for Your Bones campaign to combat Osteoporosis 31st July 2009: Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood and the National Osteoporosis Society (NOS) have teamed up to combat Osteoporosis through a new, fun education campaign - Boogie For Your Bones.
Varicose Vein Removal Surgery Update 21st July 2009: Dr Foster Health publishes the latest figures revealing how long you can expect to wait for a varicose vein stripping and ligation operation and how long you can expect to stay in hospital recovering from the procedure.
Hip and Knee Replacement Waiting Times Update 1st July 2009: Dr Foster Health publishes the latest figures revealing how long you can expect to wait for your hip and knee replacement and how long you can expect to stay in hospital recovering from the procedure.
The Intelligent Board 2009: Commissioning to reduce inequalities 9th June 2009: A microsite designed to support and extend the content of the Commissioning to reduce inequalities report, which was published in June 2009.
What are Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratios? 30th April 2009: The Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratio (HSMR) is an indicator of healthcare quality that measures whether the death rate at a hospital is higher or lower than you would expect. Like all statistics, HSMRs are not perfect. If a hospital has a high HSMR, it cannot be said for certain that this reflects failings in the care provided by the hospital. However, it can be a warning sign that things are going wrong.
Infection control 24th March 2009: New legislation is being passed into law on April 1 2009 that will grant a new government body the power to enforce new infection control requirements with an aim to improving hygiene and reducing MRSA and Clostridium difficile outbreaks.
Data quality not to blame for poor NHS performance 24th March 2009: The Healthcare Commission's recent report detailing the failings in patient care at the Mid-Staffordshire Hospital Trust has criticised the trust for blaming poor coding and data rather than investigating the quality of care.
Obesity map reveals extent of Britain's weight problem 17th November 2008: Department of Health figures for 2007-8 show that the NHS local administrative PCTs spent a total of £4.2bn on treating the health effects of overweight and obesity. The NHS's current budget for 2008-9 is just under £100bn.
Hospital Guide 2008 17th November 2008: Dr Foster reveals the health of our hospitals in the annual Hospital Guide. This year's report focuses on three dimensions of quality: patient safety, effectiveness of care and patient experience.