NHS England 12 July 2021
- Studies from around the world demonstrate that effective patient/clinician communication can improve patients’ experiences and health outcomes. This systematic review aimed to identify interventions that have previously demonstrated a positive difference to patient experience and clinical outcomes, while also reducing financial demands on the health system. The options identified needed to be interventions that policy makers, commissioners and service managers across the NHS could replicate accurately, with a reasonable return on their investment and at a manageable level of implementation risk.
- This report recommends that NHS England & NHS Improvement initially invest in a single intervention: introducing patient-centred goals of care conversations with patients presenting in Acute Medical Units (AMUs) and Surgical Assessment Units (SAUs) who are at risk of dying in the next 12 months.
- These conversations – held within 48 hours of patient admission - involve providing patients with information about their condition and treatment options, and giving them the opportunity to have their values, goals, priorities and treatment preferences heard and respected by clinical staff. These values, priorities and preferences will then be captured in a single care planning document.
