Where do healthcare professionals think that responsibility for quality improvement should lie?
Quality improvement is often the scene of ‘turf battles’ between different professionals. Nevertheless, within the clinical professions, many healthcare professionals will readily devolve responsibility for quality-related issues (such as pain management, or infection control) to a designated individual or team if a suitable candidate exists. Quality improvement is also the subject of conflict between doctors and managers. Doctors think that responsibility for defining and assessing healthcare quality should rest with the medical profession rather than managers, and quality improvement initiatives that appear to erode this and to give what is seen as undue power to others (eg, managers or non-clinical assessors) are often vigorously resisted. Managers may struggle to implement quality improvement initiatives against sometimes-entrenched attitudes, and may have to devise strategies to circumvent considerable opposition.
Related Questions
- Does FHP take responsibility for the quality of healthcare service provided by the providers of the FHP Network ?
- Do healthcare professionals have a clear understanding of the concepts and methods of quality improvement?
- What are healthcare professionals’ attitudes towards initiatives aimed at quality improvement?
