HIWM’s Paul Bird, Knowledge Transfer Lead and Head of Programme​ Delivery (NIHR ARC WM), has co-authored two recent studies published in the BMC Health Services Research and BMJ Quality and Safety journals.

Effect of cancer waiting time standards in the English National Health Service: a threshold analysis

A retrospective study of publicly available cancer waiting time data, including a 2-week wait for a specialist appointment, a 31-day decision to first treatment and a 62-day referral to treatment standard that attracted a financial penalty. They examined the performance of hospital trusts against these targets by financial year to look for threshold effects, using Cattaneo et al. manipulation density test.

Cluster randomised evaluation of a training intervention to increase the use of statistical process control charts for hospitals in England: making data count

This study evaluated the effectiveness of Statistical process control (SPC) training against the background of a wider national initiative to encourage the adoption of SPC charts.

It found that control chart use increased in both intervention and control hospitals, and is spreading across hospitals in England. Further research is needed to support hospitals implementing SPC training initiatives and to link SPC implementation to quality and safety outcomes.