Classic quotes from Florence Nightingale, Lord Kelvin, Ernest Codman, Don Berwick, Michael Porter, Atul Gawande and Ara Darzi illustrating why we need to measure health outcomes.

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Why we must measure outcomes
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If wisely used, these improved
statistics would tell us more
about the relative value of
particular operations and
modes of treatment than we
have any means of
ascertaining at present.
Florence Nightingale: Notes on
Hospitals. 3rd Edition, 1863
Why we must measure outcomes

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When you can measure what
you are speaking about, and
express it in numbers, you
know something about it; but
when you cannot express it in
numbers, your knowledge is of
a meagre and unsatisfactory
kind; it may be the beginning
of knowledge, but you have
scarcely in your thoughts
advanced to the state of
science. Lord Kelvin, 1883
Why we must measure outcomes

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Every hospital should follow
every patient it treats long
enough to determine whether
the treatment has been
successful, and then to inquire
‘if not, why not’ with a view to
preventing similar failures in
the future.
Ernest Codman 1914
Why we must measure outcomes

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The ultimate measure by which
to judge the quality of a
medical effort is whether it
helps patients (and their
families) as they see it.
Anything done in health care
that does not help a patient or
family is, by definition, waste,
whether or not the professions
and their associations
traditionally hallow it.
Don Berwick, BMJ 1997
Why we must measure outcomes

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The way to transform health
care is to realign competition
with value for patients. Value in
health care is the health
outcome per dollar of cost
expended. If all system
participants have to compete
on value, value will improve
dramatically.
Porter and Teisberg.
Redefining Health Care 2006
Why we must measure outcomes

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We have no routine measure
that puts the data together to
grade how the patient as a
whole is faring. We have only
an impression of how we’re
performing – and sometimes
not even that.
Atul Gawande.
Better: A Surgeon's Notes on
Performance, 2007
Why we must measure outcomes

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If quality is to be at the heart of
everything we do, it must be
understood from the
perspective of patients.
Darzi. High Quality Care for All:
NHS Next Stage Review Final
Report 2008
Why we must measure outcomes

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We stand on the cusp of a
revolution in the role that
patients – and also
communities – will play in their
own health and care.
Harnessing what I’ve called
this renewable energy is
potentially the make-it or
break-it difference between the
NHS being sustainable – or
not.
Simon Stevens, NHS CEO,
June 2014

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For more information about our work on short
generic measures of outcome, experience and
engagement visit our web-site
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