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Why is it that in spite of all the health policy reforms, clinical practice innovations, increasing intersectoral interdependencies and new medical and information technologies, so little has changed in the way we research and evaluate health care? Don't these changes cry out for new ways of being studied and appraised? And don't our approaches to clinical practice innovation cry out for being reinvented too? Surely, we cannot continue to wheel out research and evaluation paradigms, improvement approaches and methods that were designed for 20th century problems and 20th century health care, and assume they will be able to make sense of the problems we experience and the care we provide in the 21st century? These changes necessitate a new paradigm of health service research, evaluation and improvement and this new model adopts approaches and methods that embrace complexity. The approaches and methods can account for the vicissitudes of front-line care, the activities of front-line staff and the experiences of patients and families - where care happens. Visualising Health Care Practice Improvement draws on years of video feedback research shaping an approach that enables not only a retrospective understanding but also a view into the future, of what might be possible. It presents the argument that change is not principally about adopting solutions from elsewhere but that it is conditional on people exploring whether proposed solutions suit existing habituations. It involves a process of exploration, discovery, secession and renewal. Health care managers, policy makers and shapers will find this book enlightening. It will also be empowering to all health care professionals and front-line staff.

This comprehensive, yet accessible, text demystifies the challenging area of competence assessement in medicine and the health sciences, providing a clear framework and the tools for anyone working or studying in this area. Written by a single, highly experienced, author, the content benefits from uniformity of style and is supported and enhanced by a range of pedagogic features including cases, questions and summaries. Essential reading for all students and practitioners of medical education, it will also be an invaluable guide for allied health professionals and psychologists with a general interest in assessment, evaluation and measurement and a useful library reference.

Guidelines are powerful instruments of assistance to clinicians, capable of extending the clinical roles of nurses and pharmacists. Purchasers and managers perceive them as technological tools guaranteeing treatment quality. Guidelines also offer mechanisms by which doctors and other health care professionals can be made more accountable to their patients. - But how can clinicians tell whether a guideline has authority, and whether or not it should be followed? - Does the law protect doctors who comply with guidelines? - Are guideline developers liable for faulty advice? This timely book provides a comprehensive and accessible analysis of the many medical and legal issues arising from the current explosion of clinical guidelines. Featuring clear summaries of relevant UK, US and Commonwealth case law, it is vital reading for all doctors, health care workers, managers, purchasers, patients, and lawyers.

Healthcare is important to everyone, yet large variations in its quality have been well documented both between and within many countries. With demand and expenditure rising, it's more crucial than ever to know how well the healthcare system and all its components – from staff member to regional network – are performing. This requires data, which inevitably differ in form and quality. It also requires statistical methods, the output of which needs to be presented so that it can be understood by whoever needs it to make decisions. Statistical Methods for Healthcare Performance Monitoring covers measuring quality, types of data, risk adjustment, defining good and bad performance, statistical monitoring, presenting the results to different audiences and evaluating the monitoring system itself. Using examples from around the world, it brings all the issues and perspectives together in a largely non-technical way for clinicians, managers and methodologists.Statistical Methods for Healthcare Performance Monitoring is aimed at statisticians and researchers who need to know how to measure and compare performance, health service regulators, health service managers with responsibilities for monitoring performance, and quality improvement scientists, including those involved in clinical audits.

Influencing the Quality, Risk and Safety Movement in Healthcare explores the inner workings of some of the most influential minds in healthcare quality, risk and safety. The book was created in cooperation with the Master of Science in Healthcare Quality graduate program, developed and delivered by Queen's University, Canada. This is the only standalone interdisciplinary Master of Science graduate degree in Healthcare Quality in North America that focuses on creating tomorrow's healthcare leaders. Following a one-to-one collaboration between each leader in healthcare with a dedicated learner of the MSc(HQ), readers are presented with a synopsis of the leader's work followed by an in-depth interview with him or her. Interviews center around the leaders'contributions to and thoughts on quality, risk and safety in healthcare, dealing with topics such as the development of their body of work, their greatest achievements, what they wish they could change, and future direction of quality, risk and safety, etc. The book provides a unique and highly accessible view into how and why the science of healthcare quality has developed, as well as giving a first-hand account of the founders and key players in the movement. It will offer valuable insights to any undergraduate/graduate class with an interest in healthcare, as well as professionals working within any of the many disciplines that can influence the healthcare system.

Doctors in training are exposed to pressures and distractions to which they do not always respond appropriately, and individuals and institutions can struggle to deal effectively with difficulties when they arise. This book exposes the myths surrounding medical professionalism and strips it of pretensions or exclusivity, making a complex subject accessible and easy to comprehend. It promotes best practice for dealing with unprofessional behaviours amongst doctors-in-training. Divided into two main sections, this workbook first explores topics such as what constitutes professionalism, how it might best be taught and assessed, the interactions between professionalism, ethics and legal frameworks, international trends in medical education in relation to professionalism and implications for public policy. The second section presents 29 international case studies based on real life, explores issues and makes practical recommendations. Medical educators and students will appreciate the common format with key discussion points for each case and international health and social care professionals will welcome inspiration from the candid, sincere exploration of the topic.

This book provides readers with an invaluable set of tools to convert the endless challenges for quality and myriad opportunities for improvement into meaningful and useful change. It considers how to manage primary care organisations in order to improve quality of care; how general practices are regulated and held accountable; various techniques used for assessing and measuring; and commonly used quality improvement frameworks.

Quality refers to the amount of the unpriced attributes contained in each unit of the priced attribute.Leffler, 1982Quality is neither mind nor matter, but a third entity independent of the two, even though Quality cannot be defined, you know what it is.Pirsig, 2000The continuous formulation of good practices and procedures across fields reflects t

The first text to focus solely on quality and safety in radiotherapy, this work encompasses not only traditional, more technically oriented, quality assurance activities, but also general approaches of quality and safety. It includes contributions from experts both inside and outside the field to present a global view. The task of assuring quality

Are you ready and willing to get to the root causes of problems? As Medicare, Medicaid, and major insurance companies increasingly deny payment for never events, it has become imperative that hospitals and doctors develop new ways to prevent these avoidable catastrophes from recurring. Proactive tools such as root cause analysis (RCA), basic failur

The effective and interrelated functioning of system reliability technology, human factors, and quality play an important role in the appropriate, efficient, and cost-effective delivery of health care. Simply put, it can save you time, money, and more importantly, lives. Over the years a large number of journal and conference proceedings articles o

This reference streamlines practical guidance for the selection of POCT technologies according to technical performance, patient need, and management practices. It examines best practice of POCT and offers integrative strategies, performance maps, and treatment pathways for illustrating effective rapid-response testing processes in critical care.