Improving quality: bridging the health sector divide.
OBJECTIVE
All too often, quality assurance looks at just one small part of the complex system that is health care. However, evidently each individual patient has one set of experiences and outcomes, often involving a range of health professionals in a number of settings across multiple sectors.
In order to solve the problems of this complexity, we need to establish high-quality electronic recording in each of the settings. In the UK, primary care has been leading the way in adopting information technology and can now use databases for individual clinical care, for quality assurance using significant event and conventional auditing, and for research.
Before we can understand and quality-assure the whole health care system, we need electronic patient records in all settings and good communication to build a summary electronic health record for each patient. Such an electronic health record will be under the control of the patient concerned, will be shared with the explicit consent of the patient, and will form the vehicle for quality assurance across all sectors of the health service.
Pringle
Mike
M
Division of General Practice, University of Nottingham, England. mike.pringle@nottingham.ac.uk
D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000628:therapy*; D003628:Database Management Systems / Q000592:standards*; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D019468:Disease Management; D005194:Family Practice / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000592:standards*; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000592:standards; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012107:Research Design; D018511:Systems Integration; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology