Dr Foster's 2009 Hospital Guide - Focus on Patient Safety

Essential reading for the patient, the clinician, the politician, the civil servant and the manager - Dr Foster-s independent Hospital Guide 2009 reveals the current status of hospital care in England. Download the full Hospital Guide 2009 (2MB)

Each year the Hospital Guide concentrates on a different aspect of NHS healthcare and 2009 is no different. Patient safety is in focus this year and the Guide recognises the highest-achieving NHS hospitals.

With a Hospital Trust questionnaire response rate of 99 per cent, Dr Foster's 2009 Hospital Guide is the most comprehensive yet.

Quality Accounts reveal how well trusts perform

The 2009 edition of the Hospital Guide includes a 'quality account' for every English NHS trust. Quality accounts are a new way for NHS trusts to demonstrate how well they are performing across three indicators: patient safety; clinical effectiveness; and patient experience. Patients, families and carers can use this information to understand how good or bad their local hospital is.

Dr Foster's Quality Account Indicators give both a local and national flavour of the quality, effectiveness and humanity of the care at each hospital.

Our purpose is simple

Dr Foster was founded on a belief in the need for greater transparency about variations in healthcare performance. We not only seek to inform patients, but also to help hospitals assess their own changing patterns of performance and create opportunities for improvement. These analyses are intended to be as useful to patients as well as commissioners and clinicians.

Hospital Guide 2009 exclusive features:

1. How safe are our hospitals?: Just how seriously is the issue of patient safety being taken? We explore the latest figures...
2. Staying alert to the dangers: Martin Fletcher, Chief Executive of the National Patient Safety Agency, shares his views on improving safety in the NHS...
3. How to tell which hospital is safest: James Reason, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Manchester, gives us his top tips on choosing a safe hospital...
4. What should patients expect?: Dr Tanya Huehns, Strategy Advisor for the National Patient Safety Agency, puts herself in the shoes of the patient...
5. The international perspective: what makes a safer hospital?: Professor Peter Pronovost, intensive-care specialist physician and patient safety advisor at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, offers advice for the NHS...
6. Is hospital mortality still a worry?: Almost a decade on and there are definite signs of improvement, but concerns remain...
7. Why does being safe save hospitals money?: Dr Foster presents evidence that good quality care is more cost-effective...
8. Completing the picture - the status of end-of-life care in Britain: Are patients experiencing the end-of-life care we would all expect?
9. How is my hospital performing?: Dr Foster assesses all hospitals across a range of patient safety indicators, giving them an overall score out of 100...
10. Dr Foster Hospital Trusts of 2009: The winning hospitals explain how they did it...