Total Quality in General Practice

This work describes an experiment, initiated and supervised by the Hereford and Worcester Family Health Services Authority, in which four volunteer general practices submitted themselves to external review including an appraisal of their services by their patients. This work records the essential experiences and lessons from this example of teamwork between managers and practices in health care. The book focuses on management methods, emphasizing, in particular, the central functions of planning, standard-setting and performance-monitoring to practices which are keen to improve and to move forward at a pace, and in a way, that members of the practice team can handle without feeling pressured or over-worked. The book should appeal both to the clinical and the non-clinical members of the practice team and should also be of interest to those in health services management who are interested in promoting quality in primary health care.