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Making quality everyone's business: A case study of partnership in primary care

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Paula Heath, Dr Derek Milne

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Abstract

Analysis and improvement of the quality of care has become everyone's business in the new NHS. Audit of clinical outcomes and of patient satisfaction are to become routine. However, there is a weak link between audit and service quality, reflecting an insufficient emphasis on the process of organisational innovation. This case study illustrates how "a first class service'' can be developed through a "stakeholder-collaborative" evaluation approach. This partnership process can strengthen the audit-quality link, leading to practical and shared suggestions for service development. Clinical outcome data from 400 consecutive adult mental health patients seen over a five-year period by one clinical psychologist and patient satisfaction data (for the last 100 patients) were evaluated by 11 stakeholders. They evaluated thesedata inrelation toMaxwell's six quality criteria. Both the clinical outcomes (i.e. highly significant improvements following therapy) and the patient satisfaction data were judged favourably by the stakeholders, who used the information to suggest service improvements. © MCB UP Limited.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Heath P, Milne D

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance

Year: 2002

Volume: 15

Issue: 3

Pages: 99-105

Print publication date: 01/01/2002

ISSN (print): 0952-6862

ISSN (electronic): 1758-6542

Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing Limited

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09526860210426973

DOI: 10.1108/09526860210426973

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