Clinicians need answers but can be unaware of an appropriate methodology to
pursue the qustion.
One of my partners is part of the Performance Review Quartet for the county
which visits family doctors who have been the subject of complaints or about
whom others have raised doubts.
The tools for performance are those used to assess practices for training status
and are all simple process measures eg cytology/ immunisation rates and have
any audits been done. I get the impression that the real work is done with informal
global ratings.
Having just read through Health Scales Measurement ( Streiner and Norman)
myself, I begin to get a feel for the sheer complexity of this type of assessment.
I wonder if anyone out there has been asked as an academic to provide help in
this area. In these days of increasing openness and clinical governance such
assessments will be made whether well or badly. It only seems right that we
should have valid and reliable measures when so much is at stake for patients
and professionals careers too.
Kyran Farrell
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