1 May 2019

Defining Value-based Healthcare in the NHS

Defining Value-based Healthcare in the NHS
Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, University of Oxford May 2019
  • "Value-based healthcare is the equitable, sustainable and transparent use of the available resources to achieve better outcomes and experiences for every person"
  • This report sets out a route to defining value-based healthcare in the NHS, an assessment of the barriers to its development, and an understanding of what skills and training would support implementation.
Seven Key recommendations or patients and professionals in the NHS who are interested in increasing value at a local or national level:
  1. Adopt a common terminology so that every person involved in healthcare, including patients, has a shared understanding of what value-based healthcare is
  2. Identify and communicate unwarranted variations in healthcare to every person, ensuring genuine transparency about why value-based healthcare is essential, and why realistic decisions based on the available resources are required
  3. Recognize and develop strategies to overcome barriers to implementing value-based healthcare at the individual, team and organisational level
  4. Build capacity and capability to translate and implement the best available research evidence into effective action to increase value.
  5. Develop the necessary skills in value-based healthcare by training staff in how to measure outcomes, patient experience and resource use
  6. Ensure programmes to increase value are monitored and evaluated to provide better evidence about what is and isn’t effective
  7. Facilitate better communication and dissemination about what works in increasing value at a local and national level