Learning from a clinical microsystems quality improvement initiative to promote integrated care across a falls care pathway.

Aim: To identify learning from a clinical microsystems (CMS) quality improvement initiative to develop a more integrated service across a falls care pathway spanning community and hospital services.

Background: Falls present a major challenge to healthcare providers internationally as populations age. A review of the falls care pathway in Sheffield, United Kingdom, identified that pathway implementation was constrained by inconsistent co-ordination and integration at the hospital-community interface.

Introducing on-ward volunteers to work with patients with dementia.

This article reports on an evaluation of the effect of an on-ward volunteer service in an acute orthopaedic ward with a number of dementia patients. A mixed-methods evaluation was undertaken in 2012. This included interviews with individuals who have strategic, management, operational and clinical roles in the voluntary organisation and the NHS trust, focus group discussions with volunteers, non-participant observations of practice and focused conversations with ward staff.