Quality Innovation & Evidence in Healthcare Physical Environments in England & Sweden - Establishing a Collaborative Roadmap

Paper in proceeding, 2010

Regulators, providers and commissioners in healthcare worldwide are facing severe funding constraints that are putting increased pressures on the quality of healthcare delivery. Within England, NHS resources have grown unsustainably, and all organisations are engaged in initiatives to increase quality, innovation, productivity and safety while decreasing cost. Within the Swedish case the decentralised organisation of healthcare into County Councils faces similar problems. This comparison between a centralised English system (looking towards decentralisation) and a decentralised Swedish system (investigating the benefits of centralisation) may provide significant learning. This study investigates the English and Swedish healthcare systems examining their similarities and differences according to various factors - organisational roles, regulator standards, best practices and innovation in quality and organisation learning tools. It also evaluates the role of improving design quality via mandatory standards and compliance criteria on the one hand and others factors which drive excellence on the other. An international best practice framework is proposed that is capable of ensuring evidence based design and informing the balancing of compliance and excellence criteria.