Divisions, general practice and continuous quality improvement. What is the connection?

BACKGROUND

Quality improvement in general practice needs to take into account not only the clinical behaviour of individual general practitioners but also the system within which they work.

DISCUSSION

Continuous quality improvement (CQI) is an approach to helping clinicians work toward 'best practice' through system wide support. Its emphasis is on the improvement of processes through leadership, a team approach, the use of data, and small scale quality improvement projects.

CONCLUSION

CQI may be useful for divisions of general practice to develop and improve their infrastructure and also to support quality improvement in individual general practices.