Quality in primary care
-
This paper considers the role of teaching primary care trusts (tPCTs) at the turn of the century. A retrospective evaluation of a complex intervention is used. The evaluation has three perspectives. These are (1) a commentary on tPCTs in health policy in England, (2) the authors' reflections as senior members of a tPCT in Northern England and (3) a look-back exercise with tPCT members. ⋯ Quality criteria for acceptability, accessibility, appropriateness, equity, clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness can only be truly addressed by a learning organisation approach. This was one of the original remits for tPCTs.
-
Quality in primary care · Jan 2011
ReviewA strategy for the implementation of a quality indicator system in German primary care.
The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) has had a major impact on the quality of care in British general practice. It is seen as a major innovation amongst quality indicator systems and as a result various countries are looking at whether such initiatives could be used in their primary care. In Germany also the development of similar schemes has started. ⋯ For the successful implementation of a quality indicator system in German primary care a number of key issues, as presented in this article, need to be taken into account.
-
Quality in primary care · Jan 2011
The SHARE frailty instrument for primary care predicts incident disability in a European population-based sample.
The adoption of a frailty paradigm in primary care would be helpful to identify adults who need priority access to specialised resources. The frailty phenotype by Fried et al is a popular operationalisation of frailty, but it is not easily applicable in routine primary care practice. We recently created and validated a frailty instrument based on the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE-FI), in order to provide primary care practitioners with an easy, reliable and freely accessible tool for the assessment and monitoring of frailty in community dwelling adults over the age of 50 years (www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2318/10/57). ⋯ SHARE-FI may contribute to quality in primary care by offering a quick and reliable way to assess and monitor frailty in community dwelling individuals over the age of 50 and prioritize their access to resources, and it serves as a novel tool for audit and research.