학술논문

Involving patients to improve service quality in primary care
Document Type
Academic Journal
Source
International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 2004, Vol. 17, Issue 5, pp. 275-282.
Subject
research-article
Research paper
cat-HSC
Health & social care
cat-HMAN
Healthcare management
cat-HSQ
Health service quality
cat-HPL
Heathcare policy & law
cat-HSD
Health service delivery
Health services
Primary care
Quality assessment
Patients
United Kingdom
Language
English
ISSN
0952-6862
Abstract
A sample of 92 UK patients volunteered to take part in focus groups to discuss what elements of local primary care provision were important to them. Issues raised were prioritised by the patients and then fashioned into 18 quality indicators which nine local practices were invited to assess themselves against. At the assessment meeting three months later over 40 changes in service provision were noted in the nine participating practices. A patient questionnaire carried out in each practice, however, indicated a tendency for practices to overestimate the services they felt they provided. Patients rated the experience of generating standards as very worthwhile and enjoyed being asked. Further research needs to be carried out to assess the effectiveness of this methodology in different settings.