David Worthington and Mammar Brahimi
The Patient′s Charter has recently set the standard for hospital out‐patient clinics that patients will “be given a specific appointment time and will be seen within 30 minutes of…
Abstract
The Patient′s Charter has recently set the standard for hospital out‐patient clinics that patients will “be given a specific appointment time and will be seen within 30 minutes of that time”. Describes the successful application of an operational research/operations management approach to out‐patient appointment systems at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary. Draws the conclusion from a comparison of this and other studies that many hospitals face very similar problems with similar solutions; but that localized studies may often be required to achieve these solutions.
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Marjorie Gott and Hester Packham
Describes a study of three community nursing services provided by North Staffordshire Health Authority, which was carried out during the summer of 1991. Both the type and focus of…
Abstract
Describes a study of three community nursing services provided by North Staffordshire Health Authority, which was carried out during the summer of 1991. Both the type and focus of quality measurement reported here are fairly unique. While the development of quality measures is yet at an early stage, most measures to date are quantitative. These can inform about volume of use of a service, but not its quality. The measures designed for this study were qualitative. These, when combined with quantitative data (statistics, routinely collected), yield much richer and more complete information as a basis for decision making in service planning. Quality data on the use of community services are also under‐represented in the quality literature ‐ most studies to date have used hospital patient services as their source for data collection. Goes some way towards redressing the imbalance.