A framework for evaluating government quality initiatives: the Wimpole Street principles.

Quality is increasingly on the clinical, management and policy agenda internationally. It is indeed important for quality initiatives to be scrutinized against explicit criteria to ascertain their effectiveness, utility, and evidence base. Quality initiatives in the USA and the UK, as well as a growing number of other countries, are beginning to garner attention for governmental funding thus increasing the onus and responsibility to evaluate the contribution of quality initiatives to the goals of the health system(s).