BMJ 1995;310:1349-1350 (27 May)

Editorials

Cooperating, not competing, to improve health care

The first European forum on quality improvement in health care will provide a way

Cooperation may become most difficult just when it is most needed. When stress is high, fear develops; and fear fragments us. Health care leaders should now be working more and more closely with each other, seeking systemic solutions for systemic problems, but the opposite is happening. As demands to cut costs increase and as governments and other groups paying for health care probe the system for evidence of safety and effectiveness, professions tend to retreat within their own walls, organisations become increasingly secretive, and individuals struggle against their interdependencies.

We have seen this in the United States as reform of health care has gained momentum, mostly induced by large corporate purchasers of care, which provide most of the health care insurance for the American population. These purchasers have been angered by the steady growth in American . . . [Full text of this article]


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This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Shaw, J. S., Wasserman, R. C., Barry, S., Delaney, T., Duncan, P., Davis, W., Berry, P. (2006). Statewide Quality Improvement Outreach Improves Preventive Services for Young Children. Pediatrics 118: e1039-e1047 [Abstract] [Full text]  
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