Over the Christmas and new year break we bring you a round up of the best articles from our Leadership, Commissioning, and Innovation and Efficiency channels. Today our focus is on commissioning, as we highlight a selection of best practice articles from 2014. Among them, Varya Shaw explains how Bristol CCG’s overhaul of mental health services has shifted the balance of power from a single dominant NHS provider to service users. Also featured is how a CCG used the John Lewis’ model of customer care to provide a positive experience for patients and pre-empt complaints.

Bristol

Bristol

Bristol

Bristol takes a modern approach to commissioning mental health services

Varya Shaw follows the journey of Bristol Clinical Commissioning Group and how it overhauled its mental health structure, resulting in the balance of power shifting from a single dominant NHS provider to service users and the community.

John Lewis inspires CCG’s customer care service

Michelle Beddow explores clinical commissioning and how using the retail techniques to provide a positive experience for patients and pre-empt complaints has transformed Sandwell and West Birmingham CCG. It even won an HSJ Award in 2013.

Solve the A&E puzzle for smarter patient care

An evaluation of emergency admissions at Barnsley Hospital revealed that people often wrongly view hospital as the “best place” for treatment. Joanna Blackburn and colleagues discuss how the findings influenced the department’s redesign.

Ten tips for mental health services from primary care

Mental health services have been in the headlines but many people still have difficulties accessing help. Phil Moore and Stefanie Radford argue that primary care aligned services could hold the solution.

Data is at the heart of Somerset’s integration masterpiece

The Symphony project has built a large dataset from each anonymised individual in the south Somerset population linking acute, primary care, community, mental health and social care data. Read the article and watch the video.

More best of 2014 in: