Interested in what ‘Quality’ means in healthcare? *Join us at midday today* for “Is ‘quality’ what we should be focusing on?”

More info/register: https://q.health.org.uk/event/philosophy-and-ethics-discussion-group/ – all welcome.

Hope you can join the discussion.

Details:
How can ideas about quality help or hinder efforts to improve health services?

This online discussion will explore whether and how ‘good quality health care’ is any different from ‘good health care’, and how ideas about quality can help or hinder efforts to improve health services.

Participants will be invited to reflect on what matters in health care, and if those things ‘fit’ within quality schema such as the US Institute of Medicine’s ‘big six’ (safety, effectiveness, patient-centeredness, efficiency, equity and timeliness). They’ll also discuss what the implications of this is in improvement work.

What scope and what need might there be to name and focus on different domains of quality, or even to look beyond ‘quality’ in thinking about good and better health care?

This is the first in a series of online discussion groups which will explore questions about concepts, assumptions, values and ethics in health care quality and improvement. The idea is for participants to informally share and compare insights, perspectives and experiences. Optional pre-reading will be provided but no homework is required – just bring your interest!

Optional pre-reading for 31 May 2023:
Alan Cribb, Vikki Entwistle, and Polly Mitchell (2020), ‘What does ‘quality’ add? Towards an ethics of health care improvement’ Journal of Medical Ethics. 46(2):118–122.

The convenors will briefly summarise a few key points from the paper during the discussion but it does not exhaust the topic for discussion.

Convenors
The Philosophy and ethics discussion Special Interest Group (SIG) events will be hosted by the convenors: Alan Cribb, Vikki Entwistle and Polly Mitchell. The convenors are researchers on a Wellcome-funded project ‘But why is that better?’, an investigation of what applied philosophy and ethics can bring to quality improvement work in health care.

Visit the project website

Project Twitter: @phil4hcq

This event is organised by the Philosophy and ethics for health care improvement Special Interest Group.

Other upcoming events in the mini-series:
Philosophy and ethics discussion group | Tuesday 4 July 2023
Philosophy and ethics discussion group | Tuesday 12 September 2023