https://www.gosh.nhs.uk/conditions-and-treatments/clinical-outcomes/
Clinical outcomes
Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) always aims to provide the best possible care. To help us monitor the quality of our services, we measure what we do and how we do it.
Measuring clinical outcomes
We all want to improve our healthcare. All aspects of this, from the improved health of an individual to improved hospital experience, can be measured. Clinical outcomes are measurable changes in health, function or quality of life that result from our care. Constant review of our clinical outcomes establishes standards against which to continuously improve all aspects of our practice.
Clinical outcomes can be measured by activity data such as hospital re-admission rates, or by agreed scales and other forms of measurement. They can be recorded by administrators or by clinical staff such as doctors, nurses, psychologists or allied health professionals (e.g. physiotherapists, dietitians).
The navigation bar to the left lists the specialties with published outcomes available. Click on the specialty of interest to view the outcomes. These pages have been designed with input from parents and patients, to ensure that the content is accessible to our families as well as to commissioners and other health professionals.
Patient-reported outcome measures
Outcome measures can also be reported by patients and their families. Measures of treatment outcomes from the patient's perspective are called patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). PROMs are an important part of outcomes measurement because they provide a patient-centred assessment of health, function and quality of life.
GOSH uses a range of different PROMs in the measuring of our treatment effectiveness. We use established PROMs where these fit our patient groups. When we cannot identify a suitable PROM, we develop our own where possible. We train our staff in the use of PROMs and use them to inform service improvement.
Comparing ourselves to other centres
Many of our clinical services provide outcomes data to national or international registries. These registries monitor incidence of disease, clinical management of conditions, and treatment outcomes. Over time, national and international collection of data enables comparison with other paediatric centres on quality of services and the effectiveness of care. Several of the specialties that report to registries have access to this comparative data. Here are some examples:
The specialised care we provide sometimes means that we cannot compare what we are doing with other UK centres. We have looked for ways to compare our treatment effectiveness both against agreed standards or, where possible, with other organisations internationally to look at how we are doing over time. If agreed measures do not yet exist, this requires careful work to ensure that we are comparing 'like with like'.
We are leading a national benchmarking project with ten other paediatric hospitals in England, and we are members of the European Children's Hospitals Organisation, which includes benchmarking amongst its aims.
Easy Read information sheet
An Easy Read information sheet on measuring clinical outcomes and patient experience