PUBLISHED IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE NUFFIELD TRUST Quality is an issue of central importance in the NHS and yet, despite a considerable number of initiatives, programmes and organisation that have focussed on improving quality in the NHS over recent years, there's no comprehensive, reliable balance and rigorous account of the strengths and weaknesses in healthcare delivery. This book provides an authoritative and accessible account of the state of quality in the NHS. Unless information on quality is properly gathered, organised, analysed and used, the health service will continue to lack a foundation on which sustained and systemic improvement can be based. The Quest for Quality in the NHS: a chartbook on quality of care in the UK is a comprehensive, rigorous and robust account of healthcare quality and will inform the public, managers, researchers and policymakers about gaps between what is possible, and what is delivered by the healthcare system.

The Digital Oilfield is the buzzword of the oil industry in these early years of the 21st century.Data swiftly flows to databases, moves around the world at the speed of light and can be exchanged seamlessly between all stakeholders. From time to time, for good housekeeping, data is cleansed. Many people are involved in these intermediate or final steps.But, who cares about the real sources of oilfield data, seismic profiles, wirelines and LWD logs, drilling data and core measurements? This book expresses the real concerns about input data. It explains the inherent weaknesses of the oilfield data acquisition processes and gives recommendations on how to improve them. This quest goes through the paths of uncertainty management and elucidates the important role of the field engineers.

Wine has been around for thousands of years, grape growing and wine production is worldwide, and recipes are prolific. However, this approach to winemaking root cause analysis is original and cannot be found in any other winemaking publications. The book start with the basics, with the authors' own basic winemaking steps. This provides a winemaking process and common language. With this understanding and departure point, they describe Root Cause Analysis (RCA) methods as applied to winemaking. Though winemaking appears to have simple steps, problems or flaws inevitably arise. Instant access to online materials can provide ad-hoc answers to given conditions; however, the applicability of these solutions to one’s own situation ad particular conditions is not always clear. Selective changes may or may not solve the problem and in the winemaking world, it may take years to finish the wine and understand if the quality actually improved or not. A finished wine will have thousands of particular current and historical conditions that played some role in its quality.The root cause analysis (RCA) approach provides a path to sort these out and guide winemakers to the solution. It creates a problem statement and systematically divides the world into six discrete groups. This book tackles each and all of these, one group at a time. The text contains examples that prioritize the contributing factors. Observations are noted, possibilities identified, and likelihoods assessed. Actions and tests are identified to aid in assigning risk, corrective action, and preventive measures. Given limited time and resources, prioritized risks and actions improve the chance of solving the problem. The book provides problems exploring each of their respective six group characteristics. Each RCA step is described and illustrated in detail. The process is revealed and explained through multiple examples. Feature 1: Organized systematic method for solving winemaking quality problems Feature 2: Applicable to amateur or commercial winemakers or any other product or system development activity and organization Feature 3: Unique new application to the wine making world but similar methods historically used in complex aerospace product development Feature 4: Teaching winemakers and producers how to think about uncertainty and error. It’s possible that gold medal wine, or 95-point Wine Spectator score, or 93-point Robert Parker score was deserved for that particular wine and vintage. But it is also possible you were very lucky. It may not be earned again in next year’s vintage. This book teaches approaches and methods to maintain and or improve the quality, every year. Feature 5: Application of a potentially 'dry' rigorous root cause analysis approach in a world that enables the joy of creating and appreciating something very enjoyable. It will help you smile, at least once a year.

This book looks at how numbers and statistics have been used to underpin quality in news reporting. In doing so, the aim is to challenge some common assumptions about how journalists engage and use statistics in their quest for quality news. It seeks to improve our understanding about the usage of data and statistics as a primary means for the construction of social reality. This is a task, in our view, that is urgent in times of ‘post-truth’ politics and the rise of ‘fake news’. In this sense, the quest to produce ‘quality’ news, which seems to require incorporating statistics and engaging with data, as laudable and straightforward as it sounds, is instead far more problematic and complex than what is often accounted for.

This work includes a thorough treatment of the roles of our organiztional culture and leadership that provide the seedbed for quality work life. The values encapsulated in the organizational value structure will determine the way operations are conducted. The operational conditions deal with the creation of a safe, heathy and motivating environment. Management is fast becoming of vital importance in all industries but particularly in mining and manufacturing. Quality of work life is not the sole responsibility of an organization and its management structures. The individual must accept part of the responsibility. This book provides extensive guidance on issues such as preparation to deal with change through the development of transformational intelligence, self-management skills and personal financial management. This book is the among the first in South Africa and one of few in the world to provide a holistic overview of the creation, development and maintenance of quality of work life (QWLO) in organizations.