Business cases

Evidence searches for business cases.

The suggested time to allocate to this type of search is 4 to 8 hours.

Planning

Confirm the aims of the business case with the requester and ask the following.

  • If they know of any existing information that can set precedent?
  • Have any similar business cases been made elsewhere?
  • Is this connected with any government initiative or guidance?

Get a clear understanding of the topic from the requester and know exactly what they want the business case to focus on. For instance, examples of cost saving, number needed to treat or time saved.

Ask the requester to give you more information on the background of the search.

  • What are the current practices in place?
  • Is there evidence for these practices which could be compared and contrasted?

Familiarise yourself with any standards your organisation may have for presenting business cases.

  • Is there a specific template to follow or information that must be included?
  • Can you make your evidence search report fit-in with these?

Consider the date of the information you find so that it is applicable to the current NHS.

Execution

Choose the resources that will give the best returns for what you're searching for.

General guidance and commentary

Use one or more of the below resources.

  • NHS England.
  • NHS Providers.
  • The Health Foundation.
  • National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Guidance.
  • The King’s Fund.
  • The Nuffield Trust.
Standards and statistics

Use one or more of the below resources.

  • NHS Digital.
  • GOV.UK.
  • Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT).
  • FutureNHS.
Case studies

Use one or more of the below resources.

  • NHS England.
  • NHS Providers.
  • The Health Foundation.
  • The Academy of Fabulous NHS Stuff.
Innovation

Use one or more of the below resources.

  • Academic Health Science Networks (AHSN).
  • The Academy of Fabulous NHS Stuff.
  • Digital Health.
Specific technologies

Use one or more of the below resources.

  • Search the product or manufacturer websites.
  • NICE Technology Appraisal Guidance.
  • AHSN.
  • FutureNHS.
  • Digital Health.

Clinical rigour

For clinical rigour, you may need to focus on the highest levels of evidence.

  • Cochrane Library.
  • National Institute for Health Research’s (NIHR) Health Technology Assessments (HTAs).
  • International HTA database (INAHTA).

Search healthcare management and business databases, depending on availability.

  • Health Management Information Consortium (HMIC) is available for free via NHS OpenAthens from Ovid.
  • Health Business Elite (HBE) and Business Source Corporate are available from EBSCOhost with a paid subscription.

Search subject appropriate bibliographic databases and preprint servers.

If you need to search for costs and economics

Elton B Stephens Company (EBSCO) EBSCOhost

EBSCOhost features “costs” and “economics” limits that can be applied to Medline and Cumulated Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) searches if cost-effectiveness is being considered by your requester.

Other search filters

There are also a range of search filters available from the Economic Evaluations section of The InterTASC Information Specialists' Sub-Group Search Filter Resource (ISSG) or the McMaster University Health Information Resource Unit (HIRU) filters for cost or economics.

The different filters mention what they are specific to. For example, costs, economic evaluations or economic models. It is worth having a look to see which search filter would be most suitable for your search or you may want to adapt a search filter by removing or adding terms.

If you need to find reports on other Trusts' advances and activities

If you need to find reports on other Trusts' advances and activities and follow the below steps.

  1. Perform an advanced Google search for the topic with “NHS” in your terms, and/or your country specified as UK.
  2. Limit by domain and/or file type.

Limit by domain

To limit the search results to sites ending with “…nhs.uk” use the limits "site:nhs.uk" or "inurl:nhs".

Limit by file type

To limit by file type, use the "doctype:doc" or "doctype:pdf" limits to pick up policy documents and guidelines from around the country.

Consider also searching NHS Digital, UK Data Service, GOV.UK and the Office for National Statistics (ONS), as well as local sources.

See advanced Google for more information.

A mailing list enquiry may also elicit documents from librarians in Trusts.

Search using Google or other search engines for key terms or a product or manufacturer name, or include terms such as:

  • service models
  • service standards
  • service specifications
  • business case
  • case study

Consider directing your requester to the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare for help demonstrating how their business case can benefit “the triple bottom line” of “people, planet, profit”.

Results

In your report, group your results into categories and highlight the most useful ones to make it more user-friendly. If time allows, synthesise results into an executive summary for the head of your report that highlights the key points and any recommendations. Reference the information from within your report that you have used for this.

Examples

Example 1

Dear Dr …

Hope this email finds you well.

Please find attached the results of your requested search on: “Incidence of chronic pain in post mastectomy patients and to identify various predictive risk factors. Role of QST (Quantitative sensory testing) in characterising the chronic pain” (research since 1999).

The results in the attached Word doc. are arranged in reverse chronological order and come from a sensitive search of several sources. I’ve grouped the 2 subdivisions of your search together as I did not retrieve many articles that expressly mention baseline QSTs or pain measurements - only results #15, 30 and 72 in the attached report as I could see – is that what you would expect? Further papers mention QSTs at other points: #10, 54, 96, 101, 112, and 115.

Of the papers I retrieved in the report please note that the following results are review articles:

#5, 9, 13,18, 25, 26, 38, 57, 107, 113, 116, 132, 142, 147 and 148.

 Papers focusing on predictive risk factors:

#9, 26, 29, 36, 43, 91, 95, 102, 104, 113, and 115 (also results #s 130 and 146 to a lesser extent).

Papers focusing on incidence:

#1, 8, 11, 22, 29, 70, 93, 95, 113, 114, 140.

If this report is not what you had in mind, if you would like me to repeat the search with revised criteria, or if you would like me to present the results in a different format then please let me know and I'll be happy to oblige. If you are aware of any papers/resources that my search has not retrieved then please make me aware and I'll use that information to inform another search strategy.

From the attached report you can view the full text of the articles relevant to you by clicking on the blue links to download them using your OpenAthens login details. If you do not currently have an OpenAthens account you can register for one using your NHS email address. You will be sent an email to set your own password.

The articles we do not have direct access to will have to be ordered through our inter-library loans service which may take a few days to arrive. To make article requests you will need to fill out the journal requests form on the Knowledge library services web page at: [link to request form].

We aim to improve our services in line with your comments. If you could please take a moment to [complete our online feedback form here] we would be very grateful. Could we also contact you to hear how the search impacted your decision making, for a case study please?

Look forward to hearing from you…

Report compiled by librarian.

Example 2

“Lateral tilt - does it reduce pressure sores?” search for a business case. 

Report compiled by librarian.

Page last reviewed: 4 August 2023
Next review due: 4 August 2024