title: Qualitative methods in research on healthcare quality.
abstract: There are no easy solutions to the problem of improving the quality of care. Research has shown how difficult it can  be, but has failed to provide reliable and effective ways to change services and professional performance for the better. Much depends on the perspectives of users      and the attitudes and behaviours of professionals in the context of their organisations and healthcare teams. Qualitative research offers a variety of methods for identifying what really matters to patients and carers, detecting obstacles to changing performance, and explaining why improvement does or does  not occur. The use of such methods in future studies could lead to a better understanding of how to improve quality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2PR, UK. c.pope@bristol.ac.uk
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pope
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: van Royen
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Baker
mesh_terms: D017144:Focus Groups; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D019370:Observation; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012494:Sampling Studies; D017749:Total Quality Management; D006113:United Kingdom