Re: Measuring and improving quality of care in family practice

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 57, No. 2, March 2015, Page 56 Letters
By: Rick Potter-Cogan, MB BCh BAO
Related To:

Measuring and improving quality of care in family practice

Dr Martin Dawes is to be congratulated for his timely and scholarly article promoting a living and local method of family practice review and quality improvement [BCMJ 2014;56:504-506]. Perhaps this already happens in some group practices and departments, but my sense is that it is not widespread or systematic. The emphasis on performing this locally, led by active practitioners, is critical for success in my view. Our EMRs can be questioned and trawled for the data, so the remaining limiting factors are time and motivation. 

I accept that, as publicly paid doctors, we have a responsibility to government to demonstrate value for money and quality improvement. Perhaps Doctors of BC would consider developing a module for distribution on questioning our EMRs for salient data and modeling the group meetings that could make this happen. 

Meanwhile, I will ask my group to consider this.
—Rick Potter-Cogan, MBBCh
Comox

Rick Potter-Cogan, MB BCh BAO. Re: Measuring and improving quality of care in family practice. BCMJ, Vol. 57, No. 2, March, 2015, Page(s) 56 - Letters.


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