Clinical governance in pre-hospital care.
This article seeks to discover and recognize the importance of clinical governance within a new and emerging quality National Health Service (NHS) system. It evaluates the present state of prehospital care and recommends how change, via clinical governance, can ensure a paradigm shift from its currently fragmented state to a seamless ongoing patient care episode. Furthermore, it identifies the drivers of a quality revolution, examines the monitoring and supervision of quality care, and evaluates the role of evidence-based practice. A frank and open view of immediate care doctors is presented, with recommendations to improve the quality of skill delivery and reduce the disparity that exists. Finally, it reviews the current problems with pre-hospital care and projects a future course for quality and patient care excellence.
Robertson-Steel
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West Midlands Ambulance Trust, 4th Floor, Falcon House, 6 The Minories, Dudley, West Midlands DY2 8PN, UK.
Edwards
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Gough
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D000552:Ambulances / Q000592:standards; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000592:standards*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D008485:Medical Audit; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D013222:State Medicine / Q000592:standards; D006113:United Kingdom