March 2026 Improvement Evidence Update

Welcome to the March 2026 Improvement Evidence Update — your go-to monthly summary of the latest quality improvement research, evidence, tools, and events—all from the past month and condensed into just 2 pages for easy reference. Links to the pdf and word document are under the screenshot below.

PDF Document

Mar 2026 Evidence Update (v1.0).pdf

Download PDF • 337KB

Word Document

Mar 2026 Evidence Update (v1.0).docx

Download DOCX • 233KB

What’s Inside the Improvement Evidence Update?

• A downloadable PDF and editable Word version of the update for easy sharing and customisation.

• A searchable list of resources—just use the search bar at the top of the page.

  
  

Feel free to customise and share this update, crediting andrea.gibbons@somersetft.nhs.uk and Somerset NHS FT.

All articles were published in February 2026 (unless otherwise stated) and are in alphabetical order by journal / website

• National Improvement Conference 2026 held 3 March 2026 - resources (NHS Confederation)

• Improvement in the NHS - Board Paper (NHS England)

• Co-producing change – Podcast (NHS Confederation / The Health Foundation)

• Quality management and clinical audit: Integrating clinical audit and quality improvement to deliver impact for patients. By Iain Smith (BMJ Leader Blog)

• Implementing consistent pretreatment multidisciplinary review for breast cancer: a quality improvement project (BMJ Open Quality)

• Improving implementation of Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) to increase timeliness of recovery after cardiac surgery: a quality improvement project (BMJ Open Quality)

• National improvement initiative operationalising a 7 Phase Whole System Approach Framework (WSA7) to improve the management of chronic pain and decrease high-risk opioid prescribing across integrated care systems in England (BMJ Open Quality)

• Reducing wait times for hospital-based outpatient mental healthcare: what works? (BMJ Open Quality)

• Implementing and evaluating a low-carbon, high-quality perioperative patient warming pathway (BMJ Quality & Safety)

• Quality as a catalyst to achieve environmentally sustainable healthcare (BMJ Quality & Safety)

• Thinking critically about AI documentation quality in primary care (BMJ Quality & Safety)

• Operations Management (Cambridge University Press – Elements of Improving Quality and Safety in Healthcare)

• Strategies to reduce extubation failure in the neonatal intensive care unit: A Quality improvement approach (International Journal for Quality in Health Care)

• Scribe and prejudice? Exploring the use of AI transcription tools in social care (Ada Lovelace Institute)

• Comprehensive recommendations for the implementation of artificial intelligence in healthcare: a narrative review on facilitators and barriers (BMJ Open Quality)

• The National Cancer Plan for England, delivering world class cancer care (Department of Health and Social Care)

• Global State of Patient Safety 2025 (Imperial)

• KPMG 2025 Global CEO Outlook: Healthcare (KPMG)

• The Model Emergency Department, high performing urgent and emergency care pathways (NHS England)

• Ambient voice technology in health care: what's the evidence so far? – Blog (Nuffield Trust)

• Commissioning: lessons from the last 30 years and implications for the new role of ICBs – Long read (Nuffield Trust)

• Mixed-method evaluation of ambient voice technology: phase 1 – Report (Nuffield Trust)

• Will specialist advice and guidance reduce the waiting list for planned care as the government hopes? – Long read (Nuffield Trust)

• Fixing the front doors? Public perceptions of the NHS and general practice – Briefing (The Health Foundation)

• Public mood and the future of the NHS – with Luke Tryl – Podcast (The Health Foundation)

• Public perceptions of health and social care: Polling results – Report (The Health Foundation)

• Unpaid care: the realities of caring in the UK – Analysis (The Health Foundation)

• Experiences of people from minoritised groups who report healthcare-related harm in the UK: a qualitative socioecological study exploring factors contributing to unsafe care (BMJ Open Quality)

• Qualitative exploration of service users and social prescribing link workers of the Armed Forces Community social prescribing scheme in Cornwall (BMJ Open Quality)

• Cocreation and codesign in maternal health: processes, outcomes and implementation challenges (BMJ Quality & Safety)

• Parent hospital experiences following stillbirth – US (Frontiers in Psychiatry)

• Will the recent raft of policy developments in palliative and end of life care make a difference for patients? (Nuffield Trust)

• A Pilot Study Evaluating Traditional and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Generated Bedside Art Interventions in Hospital Care (The Patient)

• Patient Experience and Perception of First Language Usage in Healthcare: The Welsh Perspective (The Patient)

• It shouldn't be this hard, Solving the NHS maze for patients and GPs (Royal College of General Practitioners / Patients Association)

• 23 Mar 2026: NHS IMPACT: Quality management systems - Online, 12:30-13:50

• 25 Mar 2026: Q Member Event (in person, London) – In person event, all day, London

• 31 Mar 2026: Shine a light on co-production March event  – NHSE, Online, 10:30-12:00

• 30 Apr 2026: NHS IMPACT: Learning from Scotland’s improvement journey – Online, 10-10:50

• 12 May 2026: The Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust - Improvement Site Visit – In person

• 12 May 2026: South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust – Improvement Site Visit – In person

• 18 May 2026: George Eliot Hospital - Improvement Site Visit – In person

• 19 May 2026: NHS IMPACT: The anti‑racism model for improvement – Online, 12.30-13.20

• 20 May 2026: Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS FT - Improvement Site Visit – In person

• 2 June 2026: How to set up a good quality PDSA cycle – QIC Learn, Online 13:00-14:00

• 10-11 June 2026: NHS Confed Expo 2026 – Manchester

• 18 June 2026: NHS IMPACT: Leadership for improvement – Online, 10:00-10:50

• 6 July 2026: Central and North West London NHS FT- Improvement Site Visit – In person

• 9 July 2026: Lincolnshire Community & Hospitals NHS Group - Improvement Site Visit

• 24 November 2026: THIS Space 2026 – Free online, all day

• 18 January 2027: North East London FT – Improvement Site Visit – In person

For full national quality improvement events listings go to: https://www.theqihub.com/post/events